THREE YEARS U CHILL 



A LADY OF OHIO. 



13 



COLUMBUS: 

FOLLETT, FOSTER AND COMPANY, 
boston: brown & taggard. 

KEW-70BE : SHEIOON h 00. 

186L 






EXCHArvGE 

NOV ^^1944 
Serial Reroff! Civision 



Copy 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, 

By FOLLETT, FOSTER, & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 

District of Ohio. 



^ 



/ 



J 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

Page 

Departure from New York, . 1 

Coaling at Kingston, 2 

Its Decay — Tropical Scenery, 3 

Barbacoa — Mud and Discomfort, ...... 4 

The old passage of the Isthmus, . . . . . . .5 

Drunken Boatmen, 6 

River Scenery — Gorgona, 7 

Granadian Justice, . . , 8 

Arrival at Cruces, 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Equipping for the Journey, 10 

Bargaining for Mules — The Children, 11 

Mules and Mulishness, 12 

Pleasures of the Passage, 13 

Way-side Huts, 14 

The Perils of Mu 1 15 

The Elephant Hotel, 16 

Cold— The Parrots, 17 

CHAPTER III. 

Contimjation of the Journey, ....;.. 18 

Inhabitants— Panama, ........ 19 

} Fine Baths—Bishop's Palace, 20 



IV CONTENTS. 

Page 
The Weather, ........... 21 

The City, 22 

CHAPTER IV. 

Put to Sea again, 23 

Panama Hats— Water-Raft, 24' 

Bay of Payta, 25 

Native Fruits, 26 

City of Callao, .......... 27 

Aquatic Birds, 28 

Native Wine— Chinca Islands, 29 

CHAPTER V. 

Anchor in the Bay of Arica, . . . . . . . .30 

People and Costumes, . 31 

Saltpetre and Silver Mines, . . ... . . .32 

Coast Towns, . . . 33 

CHAPTER VI. ' 

Fond Dreams dispelled, 34 

Landing at Valparaiso, . .35 

The Hills— The Almendral, 36 

Plazas — Churches, 37 

Tile— Roofing— Bamboo Lath, 38 

Building— The Shops, 39 

Curb-stone Commerce, 40 

Bakers — Milkmen — Laundresses, ... . . . . .41 

Hotels — Earthquakes, 42 

The Weather— Markets, . . .43 

Protestant Churches— Sunday Life, 44 

CHAPTER VII. 

Take possession of a House, 45 

Housekeeping Experience, . 46 



CONTENTS. V 

Page 

Domestic Life, , 47 

Want of Spanish, 48 

No Fires Permitted, 49 

The Cemeteries, . . . 50 

Mode of Burial, 51 

How Butter is Preserved, ........ 52 

CHAPTER VHI. 

Glorious Mornings and gorgeous Sunsets, ..... 53 

South Wind— Fruits— Poultry, 54 

The Opera, 55 

Flowers of the Season, 56 

An Earthquake, 57 

Varieties of Costume, . . . 58 

Newspapers in Valparaiso, 59 

CHAPTER IX. 

Anniversary Festivals, . . . . . . . . 60 

Palm Sunday— Holy Week, . . . . . . . .61 

Ceremonies — Processions, . 62 

Services in the Churches, 63 

A Norther — Wrecks, . . ... . . . . . 64 

Snowy Mountains, 65 

CHAPTER X. 

St. Peter's Day— His Image, 66 

Expiation of Sins — Vows, 67 

The itz J Ocho, 68 

Holidays — National Dance, 69 

Horsemanship— A Ball, 70 

Dresses— Dancing — Christmas, 71 

Midnight Mass— An Execution, 72 



VI CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XL 

Page 

American Enterprise — Ox-carts, 73 

Start for Santiago, 74 

A Posada, 75 

Incidents of Travel, 76 

Farm Scenery, 77 

Arrival at Santiago, 78 

City of Santiago, 79 

The Patios, 80 

Architecture of Santiago, 81 

Shops— The Cathedral, 82 

Relics — A Country-Seat, .83 

A Fair— Sewerage— Water-Works, 84 

Snow Luxuries— Hospital, . 85 

Convents— The Nuns, 86 

Capuchins — The Cemetery, 87 

National Institute, 88 

Public Schools, 89 

Library— Newsp ipers, 90 

The Canada, 91 

Celebration of the Diez y Ocho, 92 

The President at Church— A Review, 93 

Country People — Parade Ground, 94 

Wealth of Santiago, 95 

Return to Valparaiso, 96 

Over the Plains, .97 

Descent of the Hills, 98 

The Cuesta Zapata, 99 

Return to Valparaiso, . . 100 

CHAPTER XIL 

A Great Event in a Foreigner's Life, 101 

A Chileno Railroad, 102 

Villa at Vina del Mar, 103 

Celebration of the Immaculate Conception, 104 



CONTENTS. VU 

CHAPTER Xm. 

Page 

Richest Silver Mine in the World, 105 

Mineral Wealth of Chili, 106 

Transportation of Silver, . . . . . . . . 107 

Chileno Currency, 108 

A Chileno Croesus, 109 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A Pleasure Garden, 110 

Going to the Polanco, Ill 

The Lasso — Early Practice, 112 

Street Curiosities, 113 

Pulperias — People — Police, 114 

Efficiency of the Police, . . . • • . . .115 

Dogs of Valparaiso, 116 

CHAPTER XV. 

First Church for Protestant Worship, 117 

Protestantism— Catholic Ceremonies, 118 

The Chileno Priests, 119 

Indulgences— Mendicant Friars, 120 

Chileno Peones at Work, , . . . . . . .121 

Railroad Bridges— Grand Mass, 122 

Tribulations of the Devout, 123 

CHAPTER XVI. 

A Pleasant Place for Weak Nerves, 124 

Earthquake Experiences, 125 

Storms— Climate, . . . 126 

Social Distinctions, 127 

Ladies and Servants, . . . 128 

Customs of the Country, 129 

Chileno Hospitalities, 130 

Ladies' Calls— Parental Relations, 131 



Till CONTENTS. 

Page 

Chileno Women— Social Habits 132 

Funerals — Gambling — Titles, 133 

Hacendados — Politeness, 134 

The Constant Cigar, 135 

Peones — Marriage, 136 

Peculiarities of the Peones, 137 

A Day at the Pantheon, 138 

Prayers for the Dead, 139 

CHAPTER XYH. 

Weather in Chili, 140 

Departure from Valparaiso, 141 

Talcahuano- Peon Funeral, 142 

Unlading Ships by Launches, 143 

Penco— Ooncepcion, •. . . 144 

Chileno Hotel, 145 

Fruits — Agriculture, . . . . » . . . . 146 

Threshing by Horse Power, 147 

Immense Crops, . 148 

CHAPTER XYIH. 

Classic Ground, 149 

Araucanian Wars, 150 

Heroic Struggles and Sacrifices, 151 

A Woman Warrior, 152 

Expulsion of Invaders, 153 

The Araucanos, 154 

Terror of the Chilenos, . . . . . . . . 155 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Voyage to Boston, . , . . 156 

Sharks— Life in a Calm, . , . . , . . . . 157 

Land 1 and Home, .,,.,.... 158 



THREE YEARS IN CHILI 



CHAPTER I. 



We left New York on the 20th of July, and on the 
28th of August entered the harbor of Valparaiso. 

The voyage to Aspinwall was eventless, but full of 
interest and delight for us, to whom this seafaring expe- 
rience was an entire novelty. On the 27th of July, we 
saw Cuba ; and on the 28th we beheld the mountains of 
Jamaica, clothed from sea to summit with the perpetual 
verdure of sugar -fields and cocoa-groves. The day was 
warm and bright, and we ran two hours along the coast, 
before putting into the bay of Port Royal — our vision 
feasted now with the glories of the land, and now with the 
beauty of the sparkUng and joyous sea. 

As you enter the bay, you see Port Royal on the right, 
crouching with low huts upon the level sands amid shelter- 



2 COALING AT KINGSTON. 

ing cocoa-nut trees ; and at the head of the bay, Kingston, 
lying beneath a mountain that rises abruptly from the water, 
covered with dark masses of vegetation, and looking at 
first glance like a great thunder-cloud fallen heavily athwart 
the sight. 

Here we stopped for coals, and before we made fast to 
the dock of the decaying city, the water about the steamer 
swarmed with unwonted life and activity : innumerable 
young negroes clove the waves with their arms, and the air 
with their shouts, noisily besieging the passengers for 
money: "One dime, massa ! " ''One dime, missus!'* 
When a coin was thrown to them, they dived through the 
transparent water and brought it up with unerring cer- 
tainty, splashing, sputtering, blowing the brine from their 
faces, and greedily vociferating for more. 

A plank walk was laid from the deck of the steamer to 
the coal-yard, and about one hundred negresses, scantily 
attired in ragged dresses that left bare the arms and neck 
and fell only to the knees, began the work of coaling. 
Each had a tub holding about a bushel, which she filled, 
and balanced on her head with one hand while she 
marched up the steep plank, keeping time to a chanted 
refrain. At the coal-hole the tubs were emptied without 



ITS DECAY — TROPICAL SCENERY. 6 

being removed from the head bj a sudden jerk of the 
neck and twist of the body ; and the women passed off at 
the other end of the ship, in endless succession. 

The hand of decay lies heavily upon Kingston. The 
narrow streets are filled with loose sand ; the pavements 
are broken, and the houses almost universally dilapidated. 
Nevertheless, there were some handsome stores, where we 
found the merchants very poHte, after we had struggled 
through the crowds of negro boys who met us at every 
door and gate-way, with vociferous invitations to enter. 
In the street, we saw not more than one white man to a 
hundred black ones, and the bitterest antipathy seemed to 
exist between the two races. 

Disembarking at Aspinwall, on the 31st, with the usual 
scenes of bustle and confusion, we took the Panama Rail- 
road for Barbacoa, twenty-three miles distant, and plunged 
suddenly into the heart of tropic scene. For a few miles 
from Aspinwall, the road passes through a swamp on crib- 
work of logs, filled in with stone and earth, with the water 
on either hand thickly matted with aquatic plants. Tra- 
versing this swamp, we entered a great forest, magnificent 
with gigantic trees, all clambered with pendant, blossomy 
vines, and gorgeous with flowers of every hue. It was 



4 BARBACOA — MUD AND DISCOMFOET. 

now the middle of the rainj season, when, in this tropical 
land, a few weeks suffice to clothe in vivid verdure every 
thing left undisturbed. In one place near the road, stood 
on old pile-driver, garlanded with luxuriant creepers ; and 
in another, a dismantled locomotive was dimly discernible 
in a mass of green. Again, in harsh and ghastly contrast 
with this exuberant vegetable hfe, the end of a coffin pro- 
truded from a fallen bank, grimly wreathed with verdure. 

After three hours' travel, we arrived at Barbacoa, and 
quitting the cars, left behind us the civilization of the 
North and found ourselves not only in a tropical climate, 
amidst tropical scenery, but tropical mud, discomfort, and 
squalor. 

Barbacoa stands on the bank of the Chagres River — a 
few bamboo huts, with a hotel distinguished by weather- 
boarding from the rest. We stopped at this hostelry for 
refreshments — taking our way from the cars to the house, 
over a path of what seemed grass, but was really the del- 
icate and beautiful sensitive-plant, that shrank fearfully 
from the feet falling upon its tender leaves. 

The place was full of Californians returning to the 
States, who gave us terrible accounts of the roads before 
us — for we were to take boats to Cruces, and thence 
struggle on with mules to Panama, hy mud. 



THE OLD PASSAGE OF THE ISTHMUS. O 

The railroad between Aspinwall and Panama has long 
been completed, and the perils and perplexities of the old- 
fashioned passage of the Isthmus are historical, rather 
than actual. I do not think, however, that their becom- 
ing 

'• Portions and parcels of the dreadful past," 

has invested them with any tender hues of romance. 
They remain in my mind to this day a harsh reality of 
mud, deprivation, and affliction. I recount them with the 
sole consolation that for me they are past forever, and that 
no one hereafter will encounter them. Only, dear reader, 
as you are whirled along by steam over a passage memo- 
rable with direful struggles, bestow a sigh upon the hard- 
ships of pre-railroad travelers ! 

At the inn of Barbacoa we remained two hours, pro- 
visioning and bargaining for boats. When at last our 
arrangements were completed, we made our way through 
the town, and clambered down the steep muddy banks of 
the river to the water's edge, where we found about two 
hundred others, trying to embark, and mingling their 
tumult with the cries of the boatmen, who were shrieking 
loud demands of ''Homhre, acquiP^ on every hand. With 
great ado, a score of us succeeded in seating ourselves in a 



k 



b DRUNKEN BOATMEN. 

boat twenty feet in length — roofed, and with canvas at 
the sides, to be let down in case of rain. Our baggage 
was carried in the same boat, and served for seats ; • and 
then we had a captain, or steersman, and six boatmen, who 
propelled our craft keel-boat fashion, by setting poles 
against the river bottom, and walking from the bow to the 
stern of the boat, on a narrow plank at either side. The 
greater part of the boats on the river were of this sort — 
some being distinguished by a red flag fluttering at the stern. 
The scene was rather pretty as a number of them pushed 
from the shore, into the middle of the river, with their gay 
bannerols waving, and freighted with men, w^omen and 
children in various costumes. 

Our boatmen were great brawny fellows (naked but 
for a hat, and a piece of cloth girt about the loins), who 
accompanied every impulse of their poles with a deep 
sonorous grunt. We had not gone far, when we discovered 
that two of them were drunk ; and presently one of them 
tumbled into the river. The current ran very rapidly, 
and we feared that the tipsy homhre was lost, when he 
came to the surface, and swimming after the boat, clamb- 
ered in, only to make a second involuntary plunge, which 
sobered him. 



KIVER SCENERY — GORGONA. t 

On the banks of the river, which rose to a height of 
from four to twenty feet, we saw occasional patches of 
corn, and now and then a few cattle, and bamboo huts ; 
but, for the most part, the view was shut off by impene- 
trable growths of trees, and interlacing vines and shrubs, 
through which a man could scarcely have hewn his way 
with an axe. 

The afternoon was one of intense enjoyment to me ; my 
eyes never wearied of the novel and ever-changing land- 
scape, and the rich and beautiful forms of vegetation. At 
half-past five we rounded to in front of Gorgona, a town 
then consisting of about forty bamboo huts, with a plaza 
and a populace enhvened by a mimic bull-fight. Here 
our captain declared that his men must have something to 
eat, and the gentlemen of our party going in search of 
food, returned with a dozen slices of ham and ten hard- 
boiled eggs — the only provisions to be had in all Gorgona. 
After an hour's delay we pushed off, and ascending the 
stream to the upper part of the town, our boatmen again 
ran the boat ashore, sprang out, struck a pole in the ground, 
made the boat fast, and, before we had time to think, 
plunged into the bushes and disappeared. It was now 
growing dark ; no other boat was in sight ; none of us 



8 GRANADIAN JUSTICE. 

could speak the language of the country ; and all the tales 
of robbery and murder that we had ever heard, occurred 
to us, and some, at least, felt very uncomfortable. A 
party of the gentlemen went ashore to the Alcalde, to 
learn, if possible, the reason of our detention, and were 
told that it was unlaivful for any boat to navigate the river 
during the night. I was afterward told that a few 
months previous, a boat striking a snag was wrecked, and 
the passengers were drowned. The homhres were promptly 
arrested, tried, and shot for murder. On the following 
day, we ourselves found that it would have been impossible 
to proceed in a dark night, for the river was full' of snags 
and sand-bars. 

All the boats that had left Barbacoa with us, had been 
made fast along the shore at Gorgona, and discovering 
that we were not entirely alone, we set about rendering 
ourselves as comfortable as possible. A boat load of pas- 
sengers, with the mails, tied up alongside, and the mail 
agent offered our gentlemen beds on the letter-bags, and 
left us more room. From the other boat, we borrowed a 
candle and three matches, to be used in case of necessity. 
The night was very dark ; a steady rain began to fall, and 
we crouched down upon our baggage, very hungry, weary, 



AKRIVAL AT CRUCES. 9 

and miserable creatures. After awhile the children be- 
came uneasy, and we all suffered agonizing suspense while 
the attempt was made to light the candle. Two of the 
matches proved dead failures ; but the third was a success. 
This excitement subsided, and I slept until roused by a 
crackhng noise under my feet. On examination I found 
that I was trampling on my bonnet, which had dropped 
from my head. The comfortless night at last wore away, 
and at daylight our boatmen returned and put our boat in 
motion. At nine o'clock we reached Cruces, where the 
noisy scenes of the embarkation were repeated. Three 
men siezed the three small children of our party, with the 
announcement of " Me picaninny Panama," and following 
their guidance, we ascended a slippery bank, and made 
our way between two rows of huts, through a street ankle- 
deep in mud and filth, swarming with pigs, poultry, don- 
keys, and children, to the St. Charles Hotel, where our 
martyrdom was consummated with a breakfast, which was 
the very abomination of indigestion. 



CHAPTER II. 

Our journey by water was now ended, but our troubles 
by land lay all before us. They began with the exchange 
of our traveling dresses for pantaloons, with short skirts 
and heavy boots. Thus equipped, with bonnets on our 
heads and coats on our backs, the question of sex was 
terribly vexed by our appearance. AVe all laughed, of 
course, at the ridiculous figures we cut ; but we were 
rather shy of showing ourselves in the novel guise, until, 
going down stairs and rejoining the company, we found a 
great many other ladies in apparel far more astonishing 
than ours. 

A Spanish gentleman who had accompanied us from 
New York, and who fortunately spoke English, made bar- 
gains for us with the muleteers. Some forty mules of 
different sizes, of different degrees of incapability, and all 
incredibly bruised and beaten, were paraded before the 
door of the hotel, where we selected the requisite number 



BAKGAINING FOR MULES — THE CHILDREN. 11 

from the best, paying ten dollars for each mule, and eleven 
cents a pound for the transportation of our baggage. I 
had brought a side-saddle from home, but when I put it 
on my mule, it left nothing of him visible but his head and 
tail ; so I exchanged it for another mule. Each lady of 
our party selected as smart and sound an animal as possi- 
ble, and then throwing her shawls upon the rude wooden 
saddle, mounted en cavalier, and sidled out of the crowd, 
in the direction of a green tree standing on the outskirts 
of the town, which was to be our rendezvous. 

The usual arrangements for the transportation of the 
children had been made. Natives, for eight dollars 
apiece, had been hired to carry them ; and they now shoul 
dered their burdens and started off — the children scream- 
ing with the full power of their lungs. It is a sore trial 
for mothers to intrust their little ones to these great sav- 
ages, who, taking by-paths through the bushes, are often 
out of sight for hours. They usually carry the children 
safely, but there have been instances of drunkenness among 
them, when they left their charges in the road. 

We did not quit our place of rendezvous without a 
number of amusing accidents. A French milliner of Pan- 
ama, returning with goods from New York, was mounted 



12 MULES AND MULISHNESS. 

on a spirited animal, that in spite of all her endearing 
caresses and appeals to his generosity, persisted in running 
away with her through the bushes, to the imminent peril 
of her neck, and was only prevailed upon to stop with 
great difficulty. Another lady lost her balance with the 
first movement of her mule, and dashed wildly from her 
perch into the mud. She was not hurt, and as this was 
her first experience on mule-back, she repeated the same 
interesting performance five times during the day. One 
of the gentlemen went back to the hotel for something 
that had been left, and his mule absolutely refused to set 
forth again. At length our friend made his appearance, 
the mule disputing every inch of the ground, with one 
native tugging at the bridle, another pushing in the rear, 
and the rider indiscriminately belaboring all parts of his 
body. It is only after a long acquaintance with this ani- 
mal that one understands the term mulish in all its pro- 
found significance. 

At our rendezvous a number of pack-mules were col- 
lected, each laden with two hundred and fifty pounds, in 
two packages, piled high on either side. They carry enor- 
mous trunks in this way : but sometimes small and feeble 
animals stagger and fall beneath their burdens, and in 



PLEASURES OF THE PASSAGE. 13 

their frantic efforts to rise, roll backward and forward 
two or three times, before regaining their feet. Leaving 
our station-tree, we plunged at once into yellow clay two 
feet deep, and the mules knowing too well the hardships 
before them, at first refused to proceed, and it required the 
most desperate exertions to put them in motion. When 
once in motion, however, these creatures, if nature held 
out, would be perpetual motions. It is as hard to stop 
them as to start them. 

It was now noon. We started single file — first through 
mud, then through bushes, then into narrow defiles from 
three to twenty feet deep, where two mules could not pass, 
and where constant care alone preserved our feet from 
being bruised against the rocks on either side. At times 
we turned angles so sharp, that we could not see ten feet 
ahead ; emerging upon a short level, to commence so steep 
an ascent that w^e had to clasp our mules' necks, to keep 
from sliding off backward; — a moment for breath, and 
then down, down through gorges of loose rocks and water 
where foothold seemed impossible. But giving our mules 
their heads, they put their noses to the ground to ascer- 
tain if there was safe footing, then put down one cautious 
foot after the other, and safely accomplished the descent, 



14 WAY-SIDE HUTS. 

never stumbling once. Now and then we came to the 
trunk of a tree across our path, three feet in diameter, but 
the mules surmounted this obstacle without trouble. All 
these exercises were amusingly varied by the passage of 
mud, and mudholes filled with loose stones, in which the 
traveler floundered desperately, till the mule sank beneath 
him, and it only remained for him to dismount, and drag 
out his beast. 

We had not seen the children now since we started ; 
but on arriving at a way-side hut, we found them at play, 
perfectly safe and happy. These huts are merely thatch- 
ed roofs sustained by four posts. The residents usually 
supplied travelers with refreshments, such as poor claret, 
ham, yams, and bread. 

Although we had left Cruces too late in the day to ex- 
pect to reach Panama that night, we determined to push 
on as far as possible. As twilight approached, however, 
we began to look anxiously for some place to pass the 
night. In most parts of the United States, we could have 
camped out for the night, but here every inch of ground, 
except the narrow foot-way, was covered with an impene- 
trable mass of trees and plants, that would have baffled 
all attempts at a bivouac. We paused a moment in front 



THE PERILS OF MUD. 15 

of a hut on the summit of a hill, but were decided to move 
on by the aspect of a crowd of unwholesome and forbid- 
ding natives about the door. After two miles' farther 
travel, we came in sight of another house, likewise set 
on a hill, and here our complete exhaustion determined us 
to remain. It was already growing dark, and between 
us and our goal stretched a vast sea of mud ; our hearts 
sunk, and the beasts that we bestrode sunk too. On our 
right, an unfortunate mule had been mired, and had died 
standing, and now with a plumptitude of body that he had 
never known in life, glared horribly at us out of his dead 
eyes ; in front of us, three pack-mules had fallen, and in 
their efforts, rolled over and over, until they were covered 
and blinded with mud, while their inhuman drivers stood 
over them, inciting them to new exertions with kicks, 
blows and yells. I felt a calm conviction that we were to 
be swallowed up in this miry sea ; but not to attempt the 
passage, seemed equally fatal. So we plunged in, and 
after prodigious and incredible efforts, our reeking mules 
dragged us to the door of the house, where we women, 
more dead than alive, were lifted off — to find the children 
safe, and five companions in misfortune, awaiting us. 
This house, which bore the cruelly significant name of 



16 THE ELEPHANT HOTEL. 

the Elephant Hotel^ was a large inclosure of bamboo 
poles, driven closely together into the earth, and fastened 
at the top, with withes of bark, roofed with canvas, open 
at the gable ends, and divided into kitchen, dining-room, 
and two dormitories. In one of these latter, which was 
very large, was a row of beds : that is, pieces of sacking 
fastened to upright poles, and rising one above the other, 
in three tiers, to the roof. Beside these beds there were 
some movable cots. On a large piece of canvas stretch- 
ed across an opening in front of the hotel, the symbolic 
animal from which the house was named, was rudely 
sketched in outline. 

After a passable supper of mutton, beans, bread and 
coffee, we retired — the women replacing their muddy 
garments with dry dresses ; and the wretched gentlemen 
of our partj^ ^yii^g down in their muddy clothes — afraid 
to remove even their boots, lest they should refuse to "go 
on" in the morning. We used our shawls for bedding, 
and in this room we all slept, men, women, children and 
muleteers. Long before this, we had found that necessity 
knows no law. 

The night was cold and damp, the wind whistled through 
the crevices of the Elephant^ our covering was insufficient. 



COLD — THE PARROTS. 17 

and so, within eight degrees of the equator, we shivered 
till daylight, when we were roused from the drowsy tor- 
por into which we had fallen by the screams of myriads 
of parrots, and rose, weary, wretched and sore, — break- 
fasted, and made ready for another day of horrors. 



CHAPTER III. 

We had yet a ride of thirteen miles before us. As we 
set forth, the first gentleman who mounted, stuck fast in 
the mud, within ten feet of the door, and was obliged to 
dismount before the mule could extricate himself. 

Our path now lay through uplands, where we mounted 
steep acclivities, and threaded dark ravines, under lofty, 
over-arching trees, between the boughs of which the deep 
azure of the sky was dimly visible. In these rocky hills, 
the muleteer, as he approaches the entrance of each of the 
narrow gorges, utters a shrill cry to know if there are 
others in the passage ; receiving no response, he proceeds. 
The small rapid streams became more numerous, and the 
country more hilly, with a delightful vista opening here 
and there, of sky, and trees, and water. Some of the 
acclivities have been traveled so many years, that the 
mules have worn, with their hoofs, footholds in the solid 
rock more than twelve inches in depth. Occasionally, 



INHABITANTS— PANAMA. 19 

we passed over several rods together of the paved road 
said to have been constructed by the buccaneers. 

Of the inhabitants of the country, we saw more women 
than men. The dress of the former usually consisted of 
a flounced muslin or calico gown, low in the neck, with 
a white cape ruffled or trimmed with lace, leaving the 
shoulders and arms entirely bare. They lounged about 
the doors of their huts, and sat on low stools, with their 
wide skirts spread upon the ground. The men wore 
nothing but a shirt, though occasionally we met one with 
an unusually keen sense of the proprieties, who carried 
a pair of pantaloons on his shoulder, to be put on before 
entering the city. 

The road, as we neared Panama, grew worse and worse, 
and we were fearfully fatigued, while the children's faces 
were blistered by the sun, and their limbs galled by the 
hot hands of the men who carried them. At last, plod- 
ding wearily on, we climbed a Httle eminence, and caught 
a glimpse, in the distance, of the white spires of Panama, 
and the blue waters of the Pacific, the city and the ocean, 
the sight of which had gladdened so many weary hearts, 
in our own time, and in the centuries past. We were met 
here by several men on horseback, who proclaimed to us 



20 

the virtues and advantages of the different hotels, for 
"which they were agents ; but our hearts were won by a 
magnificently mounted gentleman, who announced him- 
self as the proprietor of the American Hotel, and gave 
us the splendid assurance that his house was not only 
the best in the city, in all respects, but added the luxu- 
ry of fine baths to its other comforts. Passing between 
rows of squalid huts, inclosed with cactus, and on by the 
ruins of an old church, with its obelisks of masonry, 
crosses and images, we crossed several stone bridges, and 
entered at the eastern gate of Panama, and all bowed 
with fatigue, and dripping with mud, arrived at the portal 
of the American Hotel. The idea of baths, and conse- 
quent cleanliness, had taken such firm hold in our diseased 
imaginations, that we had hardly entered the room assign- 
ed to us, before we demanded them. In compliance with 
our request, a native, with the most imposing dignity, and 
an air of self-satisfaction that plainly demanded, " What 
more could you desire ? " brought us a half barrel of 
water, and set it down in the middle of the floor. 

This hotel, in the palmy days of Panama, was the 
Bishop's palace. It is a large three-story house, built 
of bricks brought from Spain, and roofed with tile. The 



* THE WEATHER. 21 

two upper stones are surrounded with corridors, on which 
all the doors open. The building is floored throughout with 
square tile. 

The weather was very hot and rainy ; one moment the 
sun shone fiercely, and the next, the rain flooded the 
streets, that smoked like a vapor-bath when the sun shone 
again. The house-tops, the edges of the pavements, and 
every place not constantly trodden upon, teemed with 
vegetation, plants and mosses, all alive with lizards. We 
were cautioned to look into our shoes before putting them 
on in the morning, lest there should be scorpions in them, 
and always remembered the caution — just after tying 
them. 

To describe Panama to American readers, would be 
like describing J^ew York or Boston, or any other city 
with which we are famihar. During our brief sojourn we 
" did" its most interesting features — the cathedral, built 
of brick, and decorated within in the worst style — where 
we saw among other figures that of the Virgin habited in 
a short tarletan dress, and looking like a ballet-dancer; 
the promenade on the sea-wall, with its dismounted guns, 
overlooking the bay and islands ; the innumerable bells 
of the churches, all cracked, and beaten with hammers 



22 THE CITY. 

instead of being rung. The city is walled ; the streets 
are narrow ; and the houses of brick, whitewashed, with 
the second story projecting over the sidewalks ; they are 
all roofed and floored with tile. 



CHAPTER IV. 

On the 7th of August, we put to sea once more, on 
board the iron steamer " Bolivia," with every prospect 
of a pleasant voyage. On the 10th, we crossed the 
equatorial line, wearing our blanket-shawls all day, and 
sitting close to the chimneys to keep warm. On the 11th, 
we ran up the Guayaquil River, in Ecuador, and anchor- 
ed at the city of the same name, forty miles from the sea. 
The river is a broad, noble stream, between one and two 
miles wide. Its banks are clothed with a dense forest of 
stately trees, among which I noticed the ebony-tree, cov- 
ered with yellow blossoms. 

The city of Guayaquil looks well from the anchorage, 
but on landing, we found it like all other Spanish -Ameri- 
can cities. The streets are narrow, and the houses are 
built of wood framed into posts of Ugnumvitce, planted 
firmly in the ground. This mode of building has been 
found by experience to be the most secure against injury 



24 PANAMA HATS — WATER-RAFT. 

bj earthquakes, as the houses will shake without falling. 
The heat was excessive. In the market we found most 
of our summer vegetables, and many tropical vegetables 
besides. The cacao-bean, from which chocolate is made, 
forms one of the principal exports. Guayaquil is also 
the great depot for Panama hats, eight hundred thousand 
dollars worth being sold annually. The grass of which 
they are made, is found chiefly in the neighboring prov- 
ince of San Cristoval. They can be braided only in the 
night or early morning, as the heat in the daytime ren- 
ders the grass brittle. It takes a native about three 
months to braid one of the finest quality, and I saw some 
hats which looked like fine linen, and were valued at fifty 
dollars apiece, even here. 

At Guayaquil we took on a supply of water, which was 
furnished in a manner peculiar to the country. An im- 
mense raft, made of bolsa-logs (a light, porous wood), 
came alongside ; its whole space (except one corner occu- 
pied by a little thatched hut) covered by carrot-shaped 
earthen jars, containing each about eighteen gallons of 
water. These jars were brought one by one, and emptied 
into the steamer's tanks. 

We left the city at four the same afternoon, and rap- 



BAY OP PAYTA. 25 

idly descended the river, with steam and tide. At the 
mouth of the Guayaquil Res the island of Pima, on which 
Pizarro landed before invading Peru. On the morning of 
the 13th, we passed Tumbez, the first point on the Pe- 
ruvian coast, and at one o'clock stood off Cape Blanco, a 
bold, sandy promontory, with the breakers dashing high 
upon it ; at five we were abreast of Cape Perina, the most 
westerly point of South America, and at nine we anchored 
in the Bay of Payta. The town is a cluster of miserable 
bamboo huts containing about fifteen hundred souls, of whom 
the greater part are Indians. Water is brought thither a 
distance of twenty-five miles, on the backs of mules, and not 
a blade of grass grows in all the barren land about; 
all vegetables are brought from Pima, a fertile valley, 
twenty miles from Payta. These vegetables, and the fruits, 
are of good quality. There are two kinds of sweet-pota- 
toes — the white and purple, which are large, round, and 
much sweeter than those of the United States. Here 
they have also yelbw Irish potatoes, which are excellent, 
but which degenerate in quality elsewhere, after the first 
crop. The fruits are apples, peaches, lemons (sweet and 
sour), melons, pomegranates, cherimayas, granadillas, pal- 
tas, and many others of intertropical growth. The sweet 



26 NATIVE FRUITS. 

lemon was round, and to me was quite tasteless. The 
cherimaja is considered the best fruit of South America. 
The tree is from fifteen to twenty feet in height, and is of 
slow growth. The blossoms are small, white and fragrant. 
The fruit is heart-shaped, and grows from two to five 
inches in diameter- — I have seen some specimens measur- 
ing over six inches. When ripe, the skin is tough, not 
very thick, brownish-yellow in color, and covered with a 
scaly net-work. The pulp is something of the consistence 
of baked custard, yellow-white, with a number of brown 
seeds in the centre. The flavor of the cherimaya has been 
likened to that of strawberries and cream, but this I think 
an exaggeration. Varieties differ as widely in taste as 
apples. The palta (sometimes called alligator-pear by 
foreigners) grows upon a tall, slender tree, and is of a 
brownish-green color, about as large as a goose egg, and 
pear-shaped. The pulp is greenish-yellow, and melts up- 
on the tongue like marrow. Some persons become exceed- 
ingly fond of it, but the taste was always very offensive to 
me. The granadilla is the fruit of a species of the passion- 
flower ; it is egg-shaped, with a thick, reddish-yellow skin ; 
the pulp, which is pleasantly acid, is filled with numerous 
seeds. 



CITY OF CALLAO. 27 

Early on the morning of the 18th we arrived at Callao, 
another Peruvian town — a dreary, uninviting place, with 
flat, one-story houses, built of canes, and plastered on the 
outside. The narrow streets intersect at right angles, and 
are filled almost to suffocation with dirt and dust, which 
the fine winter mists (for it never rains here) convert into 
impassable mire. 

Old Callao, which stood farther out on the point than 
the present town, was destroyed by an earthquake and the 
sea, in 1746, when four thousand lives were lost, and many 
of the vessels in the harbor were borne far inland by the 
invading ocean. Some of the ruins of the devoted city 
are still visible. 

The new town wears an air of almost northern bustle 
and activity. Uninjured by the skies of this rainless 
clime, vast piles of wheat (containing from ten to fifteen 
thousand bushels) lie uncovered upon the mole ; and 
the streets are thronged by water-carriers, venders of 
fruits and dulces (the generic name in Spanish for sweet- 
meats), sailors, boatmen, and troops of freight-donkeys ; 
so that it was only with great dexterity and alertness that 
we made our way through the confusion, redolent with all 
the smells of garlic-fed squalor. 



28 AQUATIC BIRDS. 

There is a railroad between Callao and Lima (a distance 
of six miles), on which trains make half-hourlj trips. 
This road is owned by three persons, whose daily income 
from it is about fifteen thousand dollars. 

Aquatic birds, pelicans, boobies, gulls, cape-pigeons, and 
others, abounded in such numbers that they fairly darkened 
the air, flying, screaming, and darting for fish. The peli- 
can diverted us greatly. Plunging into the sea, he would 
emerge with his great pouch full of fish — usually the tails 
of three or four protruding — when another kind of bird 
which was hovering in wait, gave chase, and seldom failed 
in snatching part of the pelican's booty. I had often mar- 
veled at the immense deposits of guano, but after seeing 
the myriads of birds on this coast, I ceased to wonder. 
It is a fine of twenty-five dollars to kill one of these birds, 
or even to discharge a gun in Callao Bay, or at the Chin- 
ch a Islands. 

At two o'clock we left our steamer, and taking passage 
on a much larger and better one, put to sea again. I 
deeply regretted our inability to visit Lima, the city of so 
many historic associations, and the burial-place of Pizar- 
ro, whose remains are still to be seen underneath the lofty 
altar of the great cathedral. 



NATIVE WINE — CHINCHA ISLANDS. 29 

By the morning of the 19th we had made the port of 
Pisco — a pretty town near a valley, teeming with vege- 
tation, where the best oranges on the Pacific coast are 
grown. They are large, luscious and cheap — we bought 
three hundred for two dollars. 

Large quantities of wine and rum are made here, and 
sent to Callao and other ports along the coast. They dis- 
til also a pure aromatic liquor from the Italian grape, 
called Italia de Pisco. It is put up in carrot-shaped 
earthen jars, each holding about three gallons — and is 
much esteemed by connoisseurs of good liquor — making, 
it is said, a delicious punch. 

The Chincha Islands, three in number, lie ten miles off 
in a north-western direction from Pisco. Not a green 
thing grows on all their vast extent and depth of fertiliz- 
ing guano, which restores life and vigor to so many thou- 
sands of exhausted acres. 

Passing out Of the bay to the south, our attention was 
arrested by a curiously-shaped cross, apparently made of 
light-colored stones, set in the sloping rock of the cliff, 
and some two hundred feet from top to bottom. It com- 
memorates an affair between the Spaniards and Indians in 
the old times, and is a place of annual solemnities with 
the devout, led thither by the priests. 



CHAPTER Y. 

At seven o'clock on the morning of the 22d, we an- 
chored in the Bay of Arica. The present town lies close 
to the beachj at the foot of a bluff. As seen from the 
steamer, it looked very prettily; but its charms did not 
stand the test of a sultry walk through narrow, dusty 
streets, in the glare of whitewashed walls. A small stream 
from the valley of Azapa supplies the inhabitants and ship- 
ping with drinking-water. 

Enclosed, at a httle distance from the town, is a burial- 
ground of the ancient Peruvians, but most of the graves 
have been violated by foreigners, and sacrilegious curiosity 
has spared few of the bodies, which the dry air and nitrous 
soil preserved for centuries. 

Arica has been twice almost destroyed by earthquakes, 
attacked twice by buccaneers, and once nearly desolated 
by revolutionary struggles. 

Vegetables, fruits, and even flowers are largely export- 



PEOPLE AND COSTUMES. 31 

ed. The dealers are women, one of whom accompanied 
us to Valparaiso, trading at every port. The women of 
this coast are much superior to the men in point of intel- 
lect, activity, and what we should call go-ahead-ativeness. 
The people are of all shades of color, from dark brown to 
white, with high cheek-bones, large mouths, and coarse, 
black hair. For the most part they are excessively ugly. 
The men are dressed as with us, but they wear, instead of 
a coat, the poncho, which is a square blanket, with a slit 
in the centre, through which to thrust the head — varying 
in color and quality, according to the taste and wealth of 
the wearer. It is the distinguishing mark of the peon of 
the country. The hats are of different styles — cheap 
Panama, little conical hats of blue felt, and straw. The 
women wear calicoes, muslins and worsted plaids, usually 
of gay colors — with a shawl doubled square, and one end 
thrown over the left shoulder. The hair hangs in heavy 
braids down the back. If by chance the shawl slips off, 
the gaping dress — never fastened at the bottom of the waist 
— reveals the under-clothing. This slovenliness is char- 
acteristic of the women of all classes, in a greater or less 
degree. 

On the 25th we arrived at Iquique. A more desolate, 



32 SALTPETRE AND SILVER MINES. 

forlorn-looking place, could not be imagined. It lies at 
the base of a rocky wall more than two hundred feet in 
height, and there is not a drop of fresh water, nor a spear 
of living green for thirty miles round about. Saltpetre, the 
only export of much value, is brought from the mines in 
the mountains, a distance of twelve leagues. The vein is 
three feet thick, extending, around the margin of a great 
plain, an hundred miles. I was told that the mules em- 
ployed in carrying the saltpetre, have no food nor drink 
from the time they leave the mines till their return, on the 
third day. There are extensive and rich silver mines in 
the vicinity of this place, which were formerly wrought by 
the Spanish government, but were filled up during the 
revolution, and have remained in that condition ever since. 
Drinking-water is distilled from sea-water, or brought 
forty miles in boats from the river Pisaqua. We saw here, 
and at no other port, a curious kind of boat (or holsa, as 
the natives call it), constructed of two seal-skins, made 
air-tight, lashed side by side and inflated — the boatman, or 
holsero, sitting in the middle, on a little platform of canes 
or rushes, using a double-bladed oar, with which, dipping 
first on one side and then on the other, he propelled his 



COAST TOWNS. 66 

craft -with great velocity. These boats are safe, and will 
go through a surf in which no other boat could live. 

We made Cobija, another of these desert coast-towns, 
on the 24th. This is the only seaport of Bolivia. In 
the vicinity are valuable copper mines, of which the pro- 
ducts are shipped at Catica and Algodones. The inhabi- 
tants seized eagerly upon the garden-stuff of our Arica 
traders, and in a few moments half the people of Cobija, 
I believe, were chewing sugar-cane. 

On the following day we stopped at Caldera, a town of 
three years' growth, containing 1700 inhabitants, and the 
port for the city of Capiapo. It was laid out by an Amer- 
ican, and owes its growth wholly to Yankee enterprise. 
The harbor is a fine one, and has the only dock on the 
whole coast. A railroad had just been finished from Cal- 
dera to Capiapo (fifty miles), for bringing down silver 
and copper, in the ores and in bars. We took on board 
eighty-six bars of silver, each one of which was valued at 
twenty-five hundred dollars. Caldera is utterly destitute 
of vegetation and fresh water — sea-water being distilled 
for drinking and the engines. 



CHAPTER VI. 

It was the morning of the 28th5 when we entered the 
bay of Valparaiso. We rose early, packed our trunks, 
and then went on deck, eager for the first glimpse of that 
terrestrial paradise, in whose delicious climate of perpet- 
ual sunshine, amid orange-groves filled with birds of gor- 
geous plumage, we were to live without care and without 
efibrt. We had some such fond dream of Chilian exist- 
ence, as nearly every one has of southern lands, but it 
was soon dispelled. The morn was cool and dark, and we 
shivered under our heavy shawls, while the promised land 
remained invisible until we entered the port, and then only 
showed itself very vaguely. After while we beheld the 
city, lying upon the shore, and hanging upon the slopes of 
the verdant hills — for it was now near the close of the 
rainy season, and all the land was vividly green. 

Crowds of boats flocked toward our steamer, the boat- 
men clamoring in Spanish, and making an incredible up-l 



LANDING AT VALPARAISO. 35 

roar ; but none were allowed to come alongside until the 
captain of the port had visited the steamer, as is the cus- 
tom with all vessels entering the harbor. He ascertains 
their nationality, the number of their passengers, and the 
nature of their cargoes, and the name of the last port 
from which they sailed — to be entered upon the books of 
the Bolsa, or Merchant's Exchange. 

Selecting one boat for ourselves and another for our 
baggage, we made our way to shore, half bewildered with 
strange sights and sounds. A gentleman kindly accom- 
panied us to the Hotel Aubrey (one of the best in the 
city), where we found comfortable rooms, and made very 
satisfactory experiment of the cuisine in an immediate 
breakfast. The hotel, three stories in height, is built 
against a perpendicular wall of rock, towering up three 
times as high as the building, with cactus and many flow- 
ering plants growing from the crevices. 

The history of the port of Valparaiso runs back to 1543, 
but when the city was founded is uncertain. During the 
first days of our residence, we walked every morning, 
without success in our attempts to form definite ideas of the 
shape of the place. The main part of the city is built on 
a narrow strip of land, three miles long, and not of the 



36 THE HILLS — THE ALMENDRAL. 

same width anywhere for ten rods together, which termi- 
nates at the west in a bold, rocky promontory several hun- 
dred feet in height, and on the east by a rocky bluff. 
Then abruptly hills rise to a height of two hundred feet, 
with more or less level ground beyond, for nearly half a 
mile, where they tower up thirteen hundred feet. These 
hills are broken with numerous quehradas (ravines), radi- 
ating from the shore. One spur called Cape Horn, pro- 
jecting further than the others, originally extended to the 
water, almost dividing the city in half, and only to be 
passed at low tide, but this has been blasted and cut away, 
until now a street, with a row of houses on either side, lies 
at its base. 

The eastern quarter of the city (called the Almendral, 
from a grove of almond-trees once planted there by Au- 
gustine monks) is built on ground made by human labor 
and the torrents washing the sand from the hills. The 
western part, called El Puerto, or the port, is clustered 
about the mole ; it is chiefly commercial, and nearly all 
the residents are foreigners. Streets follow the windings 
of the principal ravines to the summits of the hills, and 
are passable to no other vehicle but the birlocho — a sort 
of gig rather heavier than that in use with us. 



PLAZAS — CHURCHES. 37 

There are three plazas in "Valparaiso — Victoria, del Or- 
den, and Munieipalidad. The Victoria plaza only is of 
considerable size. On one side of it fronts the church 
San Augustin, and on the other stands the theatre — a 
handsome building, capable of seating two thousand per- 
sons. 

Houses are built along the ravines and on the hill-tops, 
and thrust corner-wise and sidewise into the hill-slopes, 
partially supported by rude foundations of earth and rock, 
or resting on posts, with the appearance of being on stilts. 
The hills are the favorite resort of the sailors, and sev- 
eral have nautical names — as the Maintop, Mizzentop and 
Foretop. Cerro Alegre is the pleasantest of all. It is 
occupied entirely by foreigners, and every house has its 
little inclosure of choice plants — a luxury purchased at 
considerable expense in this barren place, where water 
for irrigation must be bought six months of the year. 

There are six Catholic churches in the city. The 
churches of Matriz, San Augustin and Merced are the 
principal ones, of which the latter only is finished. Most 
of the dwelling-houses, particularly in the Almendral, are 
one story in height, built of adobes^ with patios, white- 
washed and roofed with tile. The adobes are bricks made 



38 TILE-ROOFING — BAMBOO LATH. 

of a mixture of claj and straw, and dried in the sun. 
Thej are eighteen inches long, nine wide, and three thick. 
The patio is a court or yard inclosed by the walls of the 
house. The tile-roofing is made of half cylinders of pot- 
tery, about eighteen inches long by eight in diameter. 
The roof is first prepared by boarding ; it is then coat- 
ed with mud, and the tiles are laid in courses, the concave 
side up, from the ridge to the eaves, the upper tiles lap- 
ping over the under, with other courses laid convex upon 
the edges, and a row forming the ridge. They are of a 
reddish-brown color, and give rather a pleasing eifect to 
the city roofs. 

The houses of more than one story are chiefly to be 
found in the port. They are made of wood framed care- 
fully together, lathed inside and outside with bamboo, and 
plastered. The bamboo is brought from Guayaquil- 
large sticks, forty feet long by eight inches in diameter, 
are split and make excellent lathing. All buildings have 
the first-story windows defended by iron bars, often wrought 
in fanciful devices, but all unpleasantly suggesting prison- 
grates. 

Since the buildings are made less of adobe and more of 
wood, the injuries from earthquakes in Valparaiso are not 



BUILDING — THE SHOPS. 39 

SO serious as formerly ; a wooden house is flexible, and will 
vibrate a great deal without falling. A balcony projects 
from the upper story of each house, over the sidewalk ; 
and the first floor is commonly used for ware-rooms, stores, 
offices, etc., while the dwellings are in the upper part of 
the building. 

The city is adorned with magnificent stores, constantly 
importing from Europe, and furnishing every article of use 
or luxury that can be required. The shop windows daz- 
zle the eye with their rich displays of laces, silks, and dia- 
monds. There are silks made expressly for the South 
American market, and I have never seen such splendid 
fabrics anywhere else. An old resident who removed to 
New York a few months since, sent back to Valparaiso to 
buy dresses for his daughter. 

In the Almendral there is a fine public garden, filled 
with rare flowering plants, with broad walks sheltered by 
trellises of grape-vines — which is open at all times to visi- 
tors. Twice a week, during the summer season (Sunday 
and Wednesday evenings), the promenaders are enlivened 
by music. The garden is then a great resort for the elite 
of Valparaiso. 

The streets are full of strange sights to us. Here in 



40 CURB-STONE COMMERCE. 

the Plaza Municlpalidad are groups of women selling shoes 
— a piece of cloth or old carpet thrown upon the ground 
near the curb-stone, and the vendor sitting on a low stool, 
with her stock of trade arranged in the interior of a large, 
shallow basket before her. She has for sale men's and 
boy's coarse leather shoes, and women's gaiters of all col- 
ors. She sits here the whole day long, shifting her stool 
to keep out of the sun, and now and then resigning it to 
the purchaser, who wishes to try on a shoe. 

Clattering along through the street comes the water-car- 
rier — a little donkey with a wooden frame on either side, 
sustaining a keg which holds about eight gallons of water. 
The donkey has no bridle, but a man or boy follows him. 
He stops at your door, and if you live up stairs, the man 
ascends with one keg at a time, and pours it into your 
water-barrel. If you live on the first floor, the donkey is 
driven into the patio. After the water is delivered and 
the kegs replaced, the man mounts so far back upon the 
donkey's hind quarters that it is hard to tell which animal 
the tail belongs to — and away they go on a hard trot for a 
new supply, the kegs banging in their frames, and the ri- 
der belaboring the donkey over either ear, according as he 
wants him to turn to the right or left. 



BAKERS — MILKMEN — LAUNDRESSES. 41 

After the water-carrier comes the bread man. All the 
bread supplied from public bakeries is of excellent qual- 
ity. Men on mules traverse the city, bringing it to the 
people's doors every morning. They are equipped with 
two panniers, nearly a foot square, made of hide, and of- 
ten carry a basket or bag full of bread on top of these ; 
the rider sits on the mule's shoulders, and the establish- 
ment occupies nearly the whole width of the narrow 
street. 

The milkman carries his milk in two small tin cans, sus- 
pended on either side of his mule, and comes so far and 
rides so fast, that the fluid is often half-churned when you 
get it. 

The laundress bringing your washed clothes, fetches 
them on her back, — passing her hand over her shoulder, 
grasping the bands, and holding the garments at full 
length that they may not be wrinkled. 

The hotels here are all conducted on the French plan — 
breakfast from eight to twelve, and dinner at five, with no 
other regular meal, though you can have lunch or tea if 
you order it. At the table d'hote gentlemen smoke be- 
tween the courses, and at intervals along the table are 
placed little three-legged metal cups, containing coals of 



42 HOTELS — EARTHQUAKES. 

fire by which to light the cigarritos. One admirable fea- 
ture in the hotel cuisine is, that whether you have coffee, 
tea or chocolate for breakfast, it is made for you alone, 
and brought in a small pot, with a pitcher of hot milk and 
a dish of sugar. In this way you get it fresh, and not as 
we do at our large American hotels, where it is made in 
quantity, and where you only know the beverage by its 
color. 

As this is the land of earthquakes, we began life in it, 
with daily expectations of the temhlo?' — fearfully curious 
about our sensations. Our first experience was somewhat 
ludicrous. We had dined out, and about nine o'clock in 
the evening, while the gentlemen were still at table, we in 
the parlor were discussing the subject of earthquakes, and 
our hostess remarked, " I always run into the street," 
and then sprang suddenly from the sofa, exclaiming — 
" There is one now ! Ladies, there is the door,'' and flew 
to the nursery to secure her little ones — leaving us stand- 
ing transfixed with terror, staring at each other, utterly 
ignorant (for it was the first time we had been in the 
house) which door opened into the street. I only re- 
member groping my way through a dimly lighted hall, and 
lifting my feet as if I were walking the deck of a rolling 



THE WEATHER — MARKETS. 43 

ship. This was so slight a shock that we should never 
have noticed it ourselves. 

It was now the close of winter, and very cool, so that 
until nine in the morning, and after four in the afternoon, 
we suffered excessively even with thick shawls on. There 
were no fires in the house, and we ordered a hrasero, 
a brass pan on three legs, and filled with charcoal, 
which is lighted and placed in the open air until well 
burned, when it is brought into the room. We always had 
headache from it. 

I went to market soon after our arrival in Valparaiso. 
The market-house consists of two or three large rooms 
crowded with all sorts of things in season, piled up in bas- 
kets or on the floor, — and the place swarming with filthy 
people. Every thing was so fearfully dirty, that I almost 
concluded to fast during my residence in Chili. There 
were in market, green peas, beans, lettuce, radishes, 
squashes, turnips and potatoes, all of good quality ; and 
turkeys, chickens, partridges, very good beef, poor mut- 
ton and veal, and various kinds of scale and shell-fish. 

After much earnest search for a house, we finally de- 
cided to rent the house and purchase the furniture of an 
American engineer who had been in the employment of 



44 PROTESTANT CHURCHES — SUNDAY LIFE. 

the Chilian government three or four years, and was now 
going home. In Valparaiso we found a small, but plea- 
sant society of Americans, our nation being less numer- 
ously represented there than either the English, Germans, 
or French. There are two Protestant places of worship 
in the city — that of the Congregational ists, and that of the 
Church of England, under the patronage of the British 
Consul. 

With the natives, Sunday, so sacred with us, is a grand 
gala-day, and every Sabbath morning the streets are gay 
with military and music, pleasure parties starting to the 
country, and people hurrying from mass — the fine lady to 
finish the day at the opera, and the peasant to crown her 
devotions at the fandango. 



CHAPTER VII. 

November. We took possession of our house on the 
1st of October, and occupy the whole upper story. Ours 
is like most other two-story houses here. It has a kitchen, 
dining-room, parlor, and seven bedrooms. The dining- 
room is in the middle of the house, and is lighted by two 
small windows in the roof. All the other rooms open upon 
a corridor, which extends around three sides of the building. 
The kitchen is very small, with a curious brick range in 
the centre. The walls and fixtures are all as black as a 
chimney-flue, and utterly revolting to the spirit of Yankee 
house-keeping within me. We have the whole establish- 
ment at a rent of $800 per annum. 

We engaged a cook and retained our predecessor's man- 
servant, neither of whom spoke one word of English, 
while we were equally ignorant of Spanish. We took pos- 
session in the morning, and found no cook. The dinner- 
hour came, and there was no dinner. We had nothing in 



46 HOUSE-KEEPING EXPERIENCES. 

the house but some groceries and bread, and could buy 
nothing because we could not speak the language of traf- 
fic, and even if we had had plenty of provisions, we could 
have cooked nothing on that incomprehensible range ! So 
the gentlemen went back to the hotel and breakfasted, 
while we satisfied our appetites upon bread and butter. 

A friend called during the evening, and suggested, that 
until we could procure a cook, we should have our meals 
brought us from a cafe. This is quite a common custom, 
I find. You have a set of tins made, fitting one into the 
other, with a wire passing through rings at the side. 
The bottom tin contains coals, and the different meals 
and vegetables are placed in the successive tins above. 
At dinner-time one may see men rushing through the 
streets in every direction, with these strings of dishes, va- 
rying in length, according to the magnitude of the pur- 
chaser's dinner. 

We lived in this way for a week, receiving applications 
without number from cooks; and finally hired one who 
came well recommended — an old woman of about sixty. 
She is to have eight dollars a month for cooking two meals 
a day, washing the greater part of the dishes, and going 
to market for us. She sleeps in her own house. It is 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 47 

droll to see me in the evening approach my cook to give 
instructions about marketing — bearing money in one hand 
and a dictionary in the other. I have learned the pronun- 
ciation of the language, which is not difficult, and I dis- 
pense entirely with verbs. The brief dialogue is some- 
thing in this manner : 

/ — Maria, heehtedik, papas, huevos (potatoes, eggs). 

Maria (invariably) — Bueno, Seilorita (very good, 
Miss). 

The man-servant (major-domo, he is magnificently 
styled here) is our chamher-maid, takes charge of the 
dining-room, and waits at table. 

We have one street staircase up which every thing is 
brought. The first thing I hear in the morning is the clat- 
ter upon the steps of the water-carrier, who brings us two 
kegs of water daily, for which he receives two dollars and 
a half a month ; then the bread man, whom we pay half a 
dollar daily for what our family of seven and two servants 
consume. (In addition to meats and vegetables from our 
table, servants are entitled to one pound of good brown 
sugar a week, and three cents' worth of bread a day. 
Butter is never allowed them.) Next comes the milkman 



48 WANT OF SPANISH. 

with half a pint for six cents. Lastly the cook arrives 
with the marketing, and fuel with which to cook it. 

This is a novel way of living from hand-to-mouth, and 
I always have an impression that some day we shall be left 
destitute. It is, however, very easy for housekeepers, for 
no bread is made in the house, and no washing is done at 
home. Our laundress comes on Monday, takes away our 
soiled linen, and brings the clean. But one must keep a 
close account of every article to guard against theft. At 
first, of course, we had a great deal of trouble, and the 
servants managed matters pretty much in their own way. 

I never so keenly felt my ignorance of language, as the 
other evening when a Chileno with his family, called to 
pay their respects, and we sat mutely staring at each other 
— eager to talk, and our heads, no doubt, full of bright 
ideas, while we were obliged to confine our conversation to 
saying "Buenas noches " (good-night). I was desperate, 
and studied Spanish next morning with prodigious vigor. 

Fires are not allowed in the port for other than cooking 
purposes, except by special permission of the Intendente, 
The natives use the brasero occasionally on cool evenings, 
but foreio;ners have introduced a few Yankee coal-stoves, 
placing them usually in the dining-room, and projecting 



NO FIRES PERMITTED. 49 

the pipe through the window. There is one in our house 
arranged as Mr. C. left it, in this manner, and one rainy 
day I attempted to light a fire in it. As the volume 
of smoke poured out of the window, a policeman came 
hurrying up the stairs and into the room, vociferating Span- 
ish. I did not understand a word, though I knew the pur- 
port of his visit ; so I worked away at my fire, and replied 
in English that I was cold, and that the fire would soon 
burn. He expostulated in Spanish, and I rejoined again 
in English, and being a woman, out-talked him, and he 
went off. In a few moments more, with his spurs and sword 
clattering along the corridor, came an officer-of-police, up- 
on whom I tried the measures so effectual with his subor- 
dinate, and each of us talked at the other in the wildest 
and most incomprehensible manner. At last, in sheer 
desperation, he ended the matter by tearing the fire to 
pieces with his hands. 

We walk daily. All but the principal streets are narrow , 
filthy, and crowded with men, women, children, donkeys 
and dogs, while the dust swarms with fleas. As you pass 
along through the poorer quarters, you notice in the door- 
ways, picturesque family groups of people, making those in- 
teresting examinations of each others' heads, which, among 
4 



50 THE CEMETERIES. 

the infested of some other lands, are usually conducted in 
private. Here, however, the strongest light is sought. 

Places of resort with us are the Catholic and Protestant 
cemeteries, which are situated on the summit of one of 
the hills, and are both surrounded with adohe walls, taste- 
fully ornamented with plants and trees. These cemete- 
ries are separated by a narrow lane. That of the Catho- 
lics is on the crest of the hill overlooking the bay ; that of 
the Protestants in the rear of the other. Each has a 
chapel, to which it is the custom to bring the dead at mid- 
night, and lock them up, performing the funeral services 
at an appointed hour the next day. 

In the Catholic grounds are some fine monuments, of 
which the most beautiful was erected by the Municipality 
of Valparaiso, to the memory of Porlates, perhaps the 
most brilliant statesman Chili has produced. It is a shaft 
of pure white marble, with a pointed cap, which has been 
half turned round by earthquakes. The monument, which 
contains the heart of the deceased patriot, is appropriate 
ly inscribed. 

There are vaults and tombs to be used permanently by 
those who can pay for them, but other graves are rente 
for one year, at the expiration of which time the bodie 



MODE OF BURIAL. 61 

are dug up, the bones thrown in a deep pit, and the cofiSns 
burned. For the wretched poor, those who have no money 
at all, excavations of fifteen or twenty feet square, and ten 
or twelve deep, are made, into which the bodies, wrapped 
in cloth, are thrown, layer upon layer, with earth over 
each, until the whole space is filled. It is then smoothed 
over, and another pit is prepared. 

In the middle of the Catholic cemetery stands an oc- 
tagonal wall of masonry, ten feet in diameter by twelve in 
height, and surmounted by an iron railing — this incloses 
a deep pit where the bones are heaped together. On my 
first visit, a ladder was standing against the wall, and I 
saw, with an indescribable horror, the leg of a skeleton 
dangling over the railing. 

"We are not satisfied with the location of our house, 
from which nothing is to be seen but filthy people, donkeys, 
dogs, and sailors' boarding-houses. 

The other day I noticed in the street a donkey-load that 
excited my curiosity. It consisted of dirty, yellow lumps 
of something, which on inquiry proved to be tallow from 
the country, put up, as is the custom, in the stomachs of 
cattle. Our butter is put up in hogs* bladders, and we 



52 HOW BUTTER IS PRESERVED. 

buy a skin at a time. It is very sweet, and this method 
of procuring it is very good. If we could only know that 
the skins had been thoroughly cleaned ! 



CHAPTER VIII. 

December. We are comfortably settled in our new 
house on Cape Horn Hill, which is a great improvement 
on the old locality. We are two hundred feet above the 
sea, and look (twenty feet from our front door) down an 
abrupt hill bristling with cactuses, upon the house-tops of 
the streets below. On either hand, the whole city lies in 
view ; across a deep ravine are the Pantheons or burial- 
grounds, while before stretches the bay with its shipping 
— and we see every vessel that goes out or comes in. 

The mornings here are glorious, and the sunsets gor- 
geous. As most persons breakfast late, it is the custom to 
walk in the early morning before the wind rises. The 
hill-promenades are then thronged with people inhaling 
the healthful breeze. Nowhere in the world, I think, can 
it be more charming than here upon these hills in the sum- 
mer mornings, far above the vileness, dust and tumult of 
the city. It is a luxury to merely live and breathe in this 



54 SOUTH WIND — FRUITS — POULTRY. 

golden sunshine viewing this magnificent scenery, and for- 
getting the troubles and struggles of the world beneath us. 

From December until April the south wind blows. It 
usually rises about ten in the morning, and falls about five 
in the afternoon ; but it often continues night and day for 
two or three days at a time — a furious wind, roaring about 
the house, penetrating every crevice, whirling the gravel 
and dust in clouds, and driving the red sand of the hills 
all over the bay and shipping. This south wind is remark- 
able for extending only about twenty-five miles inland, 
and one hundred and fifty miles seaward, and ranging along 
the coast from Cape Horn to the equator. 

As it is now the summer of the south temperate zone, we 
are having the luxuries of June and July in December. 
Strawberries are brought to our door every day, and 
are sold at a real (twelve and a half cents) a hundred — 
though the first that came were one dollar. The berry is 
very large, pale red in color, and firm in flesh, but it is 
deficient in flavor. Fruit is always sold by the number 
(even to strawberries) instead of by the measure ; and at 
the close of all bargains it is the custom of the country 
{costumhre del j)ais), for the seller to throw in a little ex- 
tra of his commodity, for what they call the llaj)a. Chick- 



THE OPERA. 55 

ens are brought to town tied together by the legs in bunch- 
es, like onions, slung upon the vender's shoulder, and ped- 
dled from door to door, the merchant pinching their breasts 
with his nails to assure you of their flesh and tenderness. 
Turkeys are driven through the streets in large droves. 

There is a very good Italian Opera Troupe now in Val- 
paraiso, and we went the other evening to hear Ernani. 
The theatre is very handsome, and inside is not architec- 
turally different from our own. Between the acts of the 
play or opera, the gentlemen go out into the vestibule, or 
upon the side, to indulge in the universal cigar, and a bell 
is rung to recall them before the curtain rises. The house 
is so filled with smoke for a few minutes after each act, 
that you can scarcely see across it. At the close of the 
performances all the gentlemen who have no ladies in 
charge, hurry into the vestibule, and take up their posi- 
tions in a row, leaving a lane through which the ladies 
must pass, and stare at them with great earnestness, com- 
menting often on their beauty. So far from considering 
this an impertinence, the Valparaiso fair think it very com- 
plimentary. Sundays and Thursdays are opera nights — 
Sunday night being the favorite with the Chilenos, when 
the best pieces are usually given. Theatre going is an 



56 FLOWERS OF THE SEASON. 

expensive amusement in Valparaiso. The price of a box 
is ten dollars, and you pay besides an entrada of one dol- 
lar and a quarter for each person. 

January. It is now the 15th of the month, and mid- 
summer, and yet the mercury has not risen above 77*^ 
Fahrenheit. I paid a visit this morning to a lady who has 
a small yard filled with the choicest flowers, and brought 
home a magnificent bouquet of nineteen varieties — some 
of them familiar, and others I had never seen. She had 
heliotropes and fuschias five and six feet in height ; and 
straw-colored tea roses covering a wall ten feet high, and 
blooming in clusters of four or five, each rose the size of a 
coffee-saucer. 

Peaches are now in season. All of them that I 
have seen are large but tasteless clingstones. All fruits 
and vegetables are brought from the Quillata Valley (some 
forty miles distant), on the backs of mules and donkeys, in 
panniers made of hide. A very fine, tall clover, called 
alfalfa, is cut and brought into the city to feed horses 
with. This, too, is carried on the backs of mules, in such 
quantities, that nothing is to be seen of the animals but 
tl^eir feet and muzzled noses. The mule is used for every 
thing. 



AN EARTHQUAKE. 57 

February, We have now very good pears, several 
kinds of plums, nectarines, melons and grapes. The 
large, white grape of commerce is grown here in great 
perfection, as well as a fine purple grape, of which the 
clusters are prodigious in size. We have apples, but they 
are hard and sweet — good for nothing. 

On the morning of the 4th of this month, we were 
aroused from sleep by a loud roar, and a jarring of the 
earth. In an instant we were on our feet, when there 
came another shock, yet more severe, rattUng every door 
and window. The sensations produced by earthquakes 
are indescribable. In all other dangers, by sea and land, 
one has an instinctive feeling, that if it were only possible 
to touch mother earth, one would be safe, but when the 
earth herself quivers under our feet, the last refuge seems 
gone ; all our preconceived notions of stability are shaken 
— we feel our utter helplessness ; and to me the first idea 
was always of some crushing, overwhelming calamity-— 
with a terror such as one might reasonably be expected to 
feel at the approach of the Day of Judgment. 

I allow myself the greatest latitude of performance in 
these sketches of my life in Valparaiso, and I hope no- 
body will be astonished by my abrupt transitions from one 



58 VARIETIES OP COSTUME. 

subject to another. Our existence itself was as sudden 
in its passage from the sublime to the ridiculous, and back 
again — and now we were charmed with the delicious cli- 
mate, and now disgusted with the dirty lanes and unwhole- 
some people ; now we shuddered at the throes of an earth- 
quake, and now we bargained for poultry at the gate ; now 
we mused among the groves of the pantheons, and now 
we strolled through the city diverted with its abounding 
and novel life. 

One of the things which amused us in street sights, this 
month, was the variety of dress among the ladies. It was 
the autumn of the south temperate zone, but there was 
little change from the summer weather, and people dressed, 
some according to comfort, and some according to the sea- 
son. One lady went by in a velvet dress, fur cloak and 
velvet hat — the full winter costume for a cold climate ; an- 
other followed in a gay cashmere, and perhaps the next 
wore a lace bonnet and berage dress. The only thing in 
which they were all alike, was the long, voluminous skirts 
with which they swept the pavement far and wide. 

Happily there is no such comment on the caprices of 
fashion in Valparaiso, as enlivens our newspaper literature 



NEWSPAPERS IN VALPARAISO. 59 

at home — possibly because there are hardly any newspa- 
pers ; there are only two Spanish dailies in the city, and 
all attempts to sustain a journal in English have failed. 



CHAPTER IX. 

April. The ninth of this month was Palm Sunday, and 
the week that followed was Holj Week, of great observ- 
ance in all Catholic countries. All day Saturday the 
streets were filled with boys selling leaves of the coccfa- 
palm, each about ten feet long, and braided and decorated 
with ribbons. On Sunday morning we went to the church 
of Nuestra Senora del Carmen, which we found thronged 
with kneeling figures of men and women, each bearing a 
leaf of palm, while dense masses of those who could not 
enter, blocked the doors. There were prayers intoned by 
the priests, music of polkas and waltzes, and abundance 
of waving of palms, but there was no sign of devotion, 
and no evidence that the people had in mind that day of 
which they were celebrating the anniversary. After awhile 
a priest entered the church, preceded by three dirty, bare- 
headed urchins, one of whom tinkled a little bell for the 
congregation to kneel, which they did as the procession 



PALM-SUNDAY — HOLY WEEK. 61 

passed them. Presently a band of music from the bar- 
racks arrived, when the crowd formed into a procession 
with the priests at their head, bearing a great book, and a 
palm gilt and crowned, and followed by boys with lighted ta- 
pers. Marching through the streets, they were joined by 
a procession from the church of La Merced ; then after 
marching around the plaza Victoria, they returned to the 
church, and the ceremonies for that day were concluded. 

On Thursday morning, at ten o'clock, all places of busi- 
ness were closed ; not a vehicle (unless that of a physi- 
cian) was to be seen in the street, and all the Catholic 
ships in the harbor displayed their flags at half-mast. 
This was the anniversary of the crucifixion, and a solemn 
and sacred festival with the Catholic natives. Protestant 
foreigners usually spend it in picnic excursions, etc. 

At night the churches were brilliantly illuminated ; some 
parts of the ceremonies were very impressive. In front 
of the altar of the church we attended — the shrine blaz- 
ing with candles — lay bound upon a cross, a life-size fig- 
ure of the Saviour, carved in wood, and painted with all 
the horrors of His painful death. On either side of the 
image a guard was stationed, who cried at intervals, " Es 



62 CEREMONIES — PROCESSIONS. 

tercera hora I " (It is the third hour.) People came and 
went in throngs, kissing the feet of the image. 

It was a moonlight night ; the streets were filled with 
multitudes, all mournfully attired in black, and groups of 
people repeated their prayers aloud, going from church to 
church — for the greater the number of these estaciones, as 
these visits are called, the greater the expiation. 

On Friday the reign of silence continued, and the altars 
of the churches were draped in black. At night there 
was a torch-light procession. First came priests chanting, 
and then life-size images of the saints, clothed in flowing 
robes of velvet; among the rest was an image of the Vir- 
gin in white tarlatan, upon a platform, attended by four 
little girls, dressed as angels, with artificial wings, curls 
and flower-wreaths upon their heads. The Holy Sepul- 
chre was represented by a large box draped with white 
muslin, half revealing a recumbent figure. All these 
things were borne upon men's shoulders, and were suc- 
ceeded by devotees with lanterns and candles, and sur- 
rounded by an unwholesome rabble, running and pushing, 
and jostling on every side. 

On Saturday morning there were services in the 
churches, all gloomily decorated with black. The priests 



SERVICES IN THE CHURCHES. 63 

marched in procession — there was a vast deal of lighting 
and extinguishing of candles, tinkling of bells, genuflex- 
ions and swinging of censors, until ten o'clock, when sud- 
denly the black veils before the altars were thrown aside, 
displaying the shrines all ablaze with candles, while the 
glad cry arose, " Christ is risen," and a peal of triumphant 
music burst from choir, organ and bells. The cannon 
of the fort thundered the tidings, and the national ships 
of war re-echoed. The closed doors flew open, vehicles 
thronged the streets, business was resumed with its accus- 
tomed noise — 

''And all the long-pent stream of life 
Dashed downward in a cataract," 

while the indignant populace vented a retrospective rage 
upon effigies of Judas Iscariot, which were made to suffer 
every punishment that human ingenuity could invent — they 
were drowned in the sea, burnt at the corners, dragged 
through the streets, and torn to pieces on the hill-sides. 

And so ended Holy Week. 

May. On Friday, the 7th, a "norther" commenced 
blowing, which, increasing through the night, on Saturday 
morning was most terrific. The bay opening to the north 
receives the full force of the wind — the waves roll upon 



64 A NORTHER — WRECKS. 

the beach in the centre, and hurl themselves upon the 
rocks at the extremities of the city, with a force that is 
seemingly irresistible. The water is very deep, and if ves- 
sels are not securely anchored, they are inevitably dashed 
to pieces upon the shore. There were some eighty ships 
and steamers in the bay, all rolling and plunging fearfully, 
with sheets of spray flying over their masts. Early in 
the morning, an old ship loaded with coals sunk at her 
moorings; and soon after another old vessel pulled her 
bows out and sunk. Later in the day, we observed a large 
ship gradually drawing near the breakers : ten minutes af- 
ter she reached the first line, she was tossing in the furious 
surf of the beach like a cork, while her crew were plain- 
ly seen clinging to the masts and rigging. Hundreds of 
people thronged to the shore to render aid, and succeeded 
in stretching a rope from a mast to the beach, and by this 
means saved the crew. In two hours not a vestige of the 
vessel was to be seen ; and before night three other ships 
were wrecked — so close in sight of us, that we looked 
down upon their decks. 

Many vessels were injured by collisions ; and the rain 
poured all day in torrents. At night the storm abated, 
and next morning the nearest mountain range was glitter- 



SNOWY MOUNTAINS. 65 

ing with snow. After such a storm, the weather for sev- 
eral days is glorious — the snowy mountains glisten all day 
in the sun, and when the sun sets in the evening, they 
glow with all the hues and splendors of the rainbow — to 
fade slowly away, as night comes, into ghastly whiteness. 



CHAPTER X. 

June. The 29th of this month was St. Peter's Day, 
and was celebrated here with appropriate ceremonies. 
An image of St. Peter was placed in a boat gaily deco- 
rated with flags, and bearing several priests, which made 
the circuit of the bay, followed by an hundred other boats, 
likewise trimmed with banners. The image was plunged 
into the water and withdrawn, fumigated with incense, 
and taken back to the church. The figure was gigantic, 
and bore two immense keys in its hand. The object of 
this ceremony is, to bless the fish that they may increase 
and multiply. 

Some of the Catholics here have a custom of expiating 
their sins by nine days' penance during Lent. In every 
town there is a house provided for the purpose, and in the 
charge of priests, where the penitents spend their nights 
in alternately praying and scourging each other. The in- 
firm expiate their sins by reciprocal pinchings. The lights 



EXPIATION OF SINS — VOWS. 67 

are extinguished, and at a signal from the priests the pen- 
itents change places and commence thrashing the nearest 
sinner with a vigor which cannot leave any doubt of the 
sincerity of their contrition. The devout often take a 
vow that if the Virgin will do certain things for them — 
restore a sick friend to health, or the like — they will per- 
form this or that ceremony, or dress themselves or their 
children a specified length of time in a particular color. 
For instance, the French consul's wife having lost several 
children, vowed that if her last child was spared, she 
would clothe it in white for one year. It lived, and the 
vow was religiously fulfilled. 

Many other pious observances attract the foreigner's at- 
tention. An American residing in an interior town, re- 
lated that he saw a woman crawl on her naked knees 
round an entire square — till her limbs streamed with blood 
— in penance for her sins. 

September. The 17th, 18th and 19th of this month 
are required by government to be observed as national 
holidays. They are the anniversaries of the days when 
Chili threw oif the Spanish yoke, and are celebrated with 
great rejoicings — the country people often continuing the 
holidays until October. Every house with pretensions to 



bb THE DIEZ Y OCHO. 

consideration, has its flag-staff and banner waving over 
the street. The Chilian flag with its white star on blue 
ground, and one red and one white stripe, is very prettj ; 
and the vast number of these, with the colors of the for- 
eign officials, displayed during the festivities, give the city 
a beautiful appearance. 

At this time, every woman must have a new dress, and 
every man a new poncho ; houses are new painted, streets 
are cleaned, and the whole place furbished up, inside and 
out. Even our cook felt the contagion of reform, and I 
found her industriously pushing the dirt from the middle 
of the kitchen floor into the corners. 

" What are you doing that for, Maria ? " I asked. 

" For the diez y ocho^ Senorita," was the reply. 

On the 18th, the fort and all the men of war in the har- 
bor fired a salute at sunrise ; and at six, the National An- 
them was sung in one of the plazas, by a hundred little 
girls in white. We spent that day at the house of a 
friend in the country, returning in time for the ceremonies 
of the 19th. Early in the morning of this last of the 
diez y ocho, the whole population of Valparaiso thronged in 
holiday attire to the Plaza Ancha (broad plaza), where a 
grand military review was held. It was a beautiful spec- 



HOLIDAYS — NATIONAL DANCE. 69 

tacle, presented in full view of the great Pacific — thou- 
sands of military marching and countermarching, with 
music and streaming flags and flashing arms — men and 
women on horseback and in birlochos, and a joyous rout 
on foot, hurrying hither and thither with the restlessness 
of crowds, and entering and emerging from the innumer- 
able gay refreshment-booths that dotted the plaza. 

This is the great day for the country people, when they 
display their horsemanship, and dance the Zamacueca, the 
national dance of Chili. Pausing in front of one of the 
booths, we went in and found a man and woman from the 
country engaged in the dance — he with spurs and poncho, 
and she in a Panama hat, gaily trimmed with ribbons, and 
her long riding-skirt thrown over her arm. Two women 
were making the music for them — one upon a rude harp, 
and the other upon a guitar, accompanying the instru- 
ments with strong, nasal voices, while a man beat time 
with his palms upon a board. It is difficult to describe the 
dance, which consists of a succession of advancing and re- 
ceding steps, the dancers alternately pursuing each other, 
and occasionally twirling a handkerchief in the right hand. 

The country people are very skilful riders, and there is 
no feat of horsemanship which they cannot perform. 



70 HORSEMANSHIP — A BALL. 

When they are a little excited with chicha, it is dangerous 
to be in their way. The men sometimes run their horses 
at full speed upon a mounted gentleman, and as they pass 
him, catch a knee inside of his, and unless he is on his 
guard, unhorse him in an instant, to their immense delight. 
It is a common thing to see women, on holidays, racing 
together on horseback. They all bring their horses into 
line, and then applying the whip, set off at a furious gal- 
lop. 

October. We attended a great national ball at the the- 
atre on the 1st, to which tickets, admitting a gentleman 
and his family, were sold at one Ounce ($17.25), the 
courtesy of purchase being extended only to guests select- 
ed by the committee. The pit of the theatre was floored 
and carpeted, and the first tier of boxes, screened with vel- 
vet hangings, served as dressing-rooms, while flags of all 
nations gracefully draped from the upper gallery. Two 
fine bands of music were stationed at either end of the 
room. At ten o'clock, when we arrived, only few persons 
were present, but at eleven the dancing commenced. The 
appearance of the guests (many of whom were from San 
tiago) was most brilliant. The ladies were all robed in 
gauzes, laces and silks, made in the latest Parisian mode, 



DRESSES— DANCING — CHRISTMAS. 71 

and blazing with diamonds. I thought the most tasteful 
dress in the room was a flounced white lace wrought in 
gold, and worn over white silk, with golden heads of wheat 
in the dark hair of the wearer. Officials, native and for- 
eign, in their rich uniforms, contributed to the splendor of 
the scene. 

Waltzes, gallopades, mazurkas, and quadrilles were the 
dances — the quadrille, with the ends and sides sometimes 
doubled and trebled. At twelve o'clock a room for the re- 
freshments of tea and cakes was thrown open, and at two a 
magnificent supper was set, consisting of every delicacy 
to be obtained in the country. At four in the morning, 
we retired among the first — several urging us to remain 
for another supper. On the first floor, tables were spread 
with cold meats and liquors, which were kept replenished 
for gentlemen all night. 

December. On Christmas we attended midnight mass 
at the church of La Matriz. Arraying ourselves in black, 
with black shawls drawn over our heads, we entered the 
brilliantly lighted church, which we found densely crowded 
with kneeling men and women. Struggling with the wor- 
shippers to the centre of the church, we stood there until 
exhausted, when an old woman kindly shared her mat with 



72 MIDNIGHT MASS — AN EXECUTION. 

US. The ceremonies continued for two hours — consisting 
of a sermon and the peculiar forms of the church. {En 
'passant — all Chileno crowds, religious and secular, are dis- 
tinguished by two things : an overpowering stench of gar- 
lic, and the presence of innumerable fleas.) Outside of 
the church, during the ceremony, boys and men were 
blowing horns and springing rattles, and making every 
other hideous noise imaginable. 

May, On the 27th, a murderer was shot in the Plaza del 
Orden, which lies at the foot of our hill. Thousands as- 
sembled on the hill-sides, house-tops, and every available 
spot to witness the execution. The criminal, clothed in a 
long white robe, and accompanied by three holy fathers, 
was led to a post, seated with his back against it, and his 
body and arms tied to it. Eight soldiers were drawn up 
in front, and at a signal, four of them fired at his heart — 
a drooping of his head was the only preceptible motion 
that followed the discharge. I had no intention of wit- 
nessing so horrible a spectacle, but looking with a glass to 
see how the man was secured, the soldiers fired before I 
could withdraw my eyes. This is the mode of execution 
in Chili. 



CHAPTER XI. 

On the 4th of September, 1855, we left Valparaiso for 
a brief visit to Santiago, the Chilian capital, where we 
proposed to spend the diez y ocho. Until within a year, bir- 
lochos had been the only means of conveyance for persons 
going to the capital, but now the journey was made by a 
regular daily line of coaches, established by an American, 
and furnished with Yankee stages and Yankee drivers. 
The departure of the coach was always a great event at 
Yalparaiso—a crowd of ever-astonished Chilenos assembling 
every day to witness the phenomenon of one man driving 
six horses. 

The transportation of merchandise and other freight 
from Valparaiso to Santiago is effected by means of enor- 
mous ox-carts, bamboo-bodied, and roofed with hide. They 
are usually drawn by three yoke — the leading yoke to be 
detached and hitched to the tail of the cart as a " hold- 
back " in descending: the hills. 



74 STAKT FOR SANTIAGO. 

We quitted Valparaiso at noon, having quite a cosmo- 
politan company of passengers — three Peruvians, two Ital- 
ians, one halt-Chileno, and four Americans. Passing out 
at the east of the city, we ascended the rising road until 
we had reached an elevation of thirteen hundred feet, 
whence we looked back upon the dusty city beneath us, 
and the bay flashing in the sun and flecked with far, white 
sails, while upon the right, the snow-crested Aconcagua^ 
lifted its stately peak, about which hovered a blush of faint, 
delicious crimson. 

The face of these hills is barren — but for now and then 
a nook of green where a tall, solitary palm lifts its graceful 
head above a little stream, and with here and there a wide- 
armed, stone wind-mill, gives to the desolate landscape its 
only element of the picturesque. 

After a descent of some five miles, we arrived at a little 
posada, or country inn, where we exchanged our six tired 
horses for four fresh ones, and continued our journey. 
The recent rains had made fresh and green the fields that, 
two months hence, would be parched and brown with heat ; 
and now the south wind blew so strong and cool, that we 
were obliged to close the coach-windows. 

At six o'clock we reached Casa Blanca, thirty miles 



A POSADA. 75 

from Valparaiso. The posada here is kept by an English 
couple, to whom we were introduced by a fellow-passen- 
ger. They received us with cordiality, and took us into 
their own part of the inn, where we fared better than if 
left to the mercies of the servants in the travelers' rooms. 
The posada is a one-story house, comfortable, pleasantly 
furnished, and with actually a carpet on the parlor floor. 
As the night was cool, a large hrasero was kept burning 
in our room, and we had a good English supper of beef- 
steak, eggs, toast and tea. The eating, I say, was Eng- 
lish — the sleeping was decidedly Chileno, in a forbrn brick- 
floored, dirtily carpeted room, upon hard, narrow beds, 
which I ache to remember. 

Casa Blanca is situated upon an elevated plain, and 
contains about two thousand inhabitants. The road to 
Santiago (which forms the principal street) is lined on 
either side with Lombardy poplars for miles. 

We were on the road again at four o'clock next morn- 
ing, and traveled until daylight over a level country, 
which then began to grow more rolling. The road, the 
hill-sides and plains, in some places, are covered with 
shrubs, giant cactuses, and espino trees, which resemble 
old apple trees. The road was thronged with ox-carts, 



76 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 

and men and women on horseback — the women riding the 
native saddle, which has a back and no horns, and sitting 
on the wrong side, their bodies at right angles with the 
horses' head. Among other wayfarers were chicken-mer- 
chants, driving mules, each laden with a large coop. 
These poulterers, in traveling, stop on the plains near a 
stream, let their chickens out, feed them, drive them to 
water — and have all the life of the barn-yard about them. 
Then restoring the fowls to their coops, they set off again. 

At eleven o'clock we reached Melipilla, a town of one- 
story adobe houses, white-washed and tile-roofed. It con- 
tains nearly eight thousand inhabitants, and is a place of 
considerable wealth. Here we had a miserable breakfast 
of cazuela and coffee. Cazuela is a national dish, used 
everywhere in Chili, and is a sort of stew made of chicken 
commonly (though sometimes of other meats), with po- 
tatoes, rice and green peas. 

From Melipilla to Santiago is an almost imperceptible 
ascent. The sides of the road are lined with ditches of 
running water, and bordered by long rows of poplars and 
mud walls. The walls are made of mud taken from the 
ditch, packed in a frame, and turned out until the wall is 
of sufficient height ; they are then sometimes roofed with 



FARM SCENERY. 77 

tile, and make excellent fencing, in a climate where there 
is no frost to crack them. Other fences are made of 
stakes interlaced with espino bushes. 

The poplar trees grow readily from cuttings, and are 
planted so thickly that, when they are of full size, they are 
not more than tA¥0 feet apart. Occasionally we saw a 
rancho or farm-house by the road side, built of adobes, or 
of sticks and mud, and thatched with straw. Stopping at 
one of them to change horses, we entered. The ground 
served for a j3oor ; there was a rude bedstead in one cor- 
ner of the room, and three or four chairs ; a fire of char- 
coal was burning on the ground, and over it stood a 
long-legged iron pot, and near this a couple of round, red- 
dish earthen jars, the sole cooking utensils. Two or three 
women were standing about, with apparently nothing to do. 
They were polite and hospitable — asking if we were going 
to Santiago to spend the diez y ocho, wishing us enjoyment, 
and presenting us with oranges. Near the hut, a few ap- 
ple, pear and peach trees were in bloom. 

We saw a few country-seats — ^large, low houses, sur- 
rounded with fruit trees. These places are the residences 
of the hacendados, or landed proprietors, and all have 
distinguished names, such as San Pedro, Sand Isidro, etc. 



T8 ARRIVAL AT SANTIAGO. 

For miles along the road on either hand stretched bound- 
less fields of clover, in which thousands of cattle were 
feeding. 

At four in the afternoon, passing through the low sub- 
urbs of Santiago, we drove up in front of a pair of wide 
iron gates — the entrance to the Hotel Ingles — a large 
building in the Plaza de la Independencia ; here we found 
our rooms (engaged three weeks before) very comfort- 
able. They opened upon an inner faiio and the corridor, 
from which latter the giant crests of the Andes were visi- 
ble. That evening we feasted our vision upon a scene 
of sublimity and beauty that alone repaid us a thousand- 
fold for all we had endured in coming to Chili. The sun 
was sinking in the west, and flashing his last crimson rays 
upon those majestic peaks, whose snows gleamed and 
sparkled in the tender light, as the broad white wings 
of hovering angels might shine, in the descent from hea- 
ven. But even as we looked, the glories of the scene 
passed away, the sun sank beneath the horizon, and the 
mountains rose, pale and phantom-like, in the deepening 
twilight. 

Santiago, seven miles square, lies on a plain at the foot 
of the Andes — several spurs of which are inclosed within 



CITY OF SANTIAGO. 79 

the citj limits. Santa Lucia, a pyramidal hill of rock, rises 
one hundred and eighty feet ahove the plaza. It is 
crowned with a mass of prismatic porphyry, inclining at 
an angle of forty-five degrees, looking as if the first tem- 
blor would precipitate it upon the houses below. This hill 
is the site of the observatory established by Lieutenant 
Gillis, on the part of our government, for the purpose of 
taking astronomical observations. On the sides of the hill 
are forts now disused. 

The river Mapocho divides the city. En the dry season 
there is a small quantity of water flowing through many 
channels ; during the winter, the rains raise the river to a 
rapid and angry flood. High breakwaters are built on 
either side of the stream to prevent inundations, which have 
destroyed a large part of the city. The river is spanned 
by a massive stone bridge of eleven arches, built in the 
year 1775, which is 650 feet long, and wide enough for 
footways, and the passage of two carts abreast. The 
roadway is paved with stone, and upon each abutment on 
the stream are little brick towers, originally intended as 
guard-houses, to protect the bridge against Indians, but 
are now used as shops, where edibles of all descriptions 
are sold. 



80 THE PATIOS. 

The streets of Santiago are comparatively wide, and 
are paved with round stones. They were lighted with oil 
when we were there, but gas was soon to be introduced. 
The buildings are mostly of adobe, and roofed with tile — 
seldom exceeding one story in height — a circumstance that 
of course conduces to safety in earthquakes. Building 
stone is abundant, but the mechanics are not skilful in 
working it. The houses of the wealthy are constructed in 
the Spanish fashion, with patios inclosed by the different 
apartments of the house, and usually filled with flower- 
ing shrubs, having a magnolia or some other fine tree 
in the centre. The entrance is by means of large iron 
gates, broad and high enough to admit a mail-coach, which 
are left open by day, and closed at night. In several of the 
houses we visited, the stable was on one side of the gates, 
and the porter's room on the other. Passing through the 
patio we entered the parlors, beyond which was another 
patio, filled with plants, and accessible from the dining- 
room and bedchambers — and those with the servants' 
rooms and kitchens sometimes inclosed a third 'patio. In 
the first, just before the parlor windows, the carriage was 
cleaned and the horses harnessed. The patios are paved 
with round pebbles from the Mapocho, and have in the 



ARCHITECTURE OF SANTIAGO. 81 

centre, sometimes a fanciful figure, or a date, formed of 
the extremities of the leg bones of mules. The houses are 
very unpretending in appearance outside, as the building 
material does not admit of much architectural display. 
Square tiles laid upon the ground are universally used for 
flooring, while the ceilings are always of board, for plas- 
tering would be shaken off by earthquakes. The walls 
are plastered with mud, and then every apartment is pa- 
pered. Within doors, every luxury that wealth can pro- 
cure, the rich have. Furniture is brought from France ; 
— one Chileno of whom I heard, furnished two parlors 
with Parisian furniture, at an expense of thirty-four thou- 
sand dollars. 

Some of the public buildings of Santiago are very fine. 
A new theatre, building while we were there, was to be 
the largest in the world. A penitentiary recently finished, 
is two miles from the city. It is built of brick, in octagon 
form, inclosing a court which serves for a chapel. There 
are cells for five hundred and thirty prisoners. Of course, 
the building is only one story in height. The mint, built 
in Doric style, is the most imposing public edifice. In 
this the President of Chili resides. A noticeable building 

is the Portal, on one of the plazas — an immense affair, in 
6 



82 SHOPS — THE CATHEDRAL. 

which most of the splendid shops are to be found, and 
where every thing that can be imported is for sale. 

There are many churches, but none of them remarkable 
for beauty. The Cathederal is an imposing edifice, of 
gray granite, fronting on the principal plaza. Although 
one hundred years old, it is not yet finished, and workmen 
were still engaged upon it when we were there. Two 
rows of columns support the roof, within. There are six- 
teen altars in the side-aisles, and one lofty shrine in the 
centre of the building, which is richly decorated with 
massive silver candlesticks, silver vases, silver frames on 
which to rest the books of prayer, — and over all, resting 
upon a heavy silver cornice, a canopy of the same precious 
metal. Under one of the aisles lie buried three bishops, 
whose enormous shovel hats, begrimmed with dust are sus- 
pended from the roof above the sepulchres. 

As we sauntered through the building, we were accosted 
by a young man apparently in office there, who asked us 
if we would like to see a relic ; we were anxious, of course, 
and a curtain was drawn aside from a little recess, where 
we beheld a recumbent skeleton, of small size, brown with 
age, and decorated with gauze, tinsel, and faded flowers. 
This, we were assured, was Saint Mark. There are extant 



EELICS — A COUNTRY-SEAT. 83 

several skeletons of this Evangelist, but we were very glad 
to see one. Upon a table in front of every cburch in 
Santiago, stands a figure of the Virgin, with a little box for 
alms. The interiors of the churches are ornamented with 
figures of saints, the Virgin, and the Saviour — the latter 
often depicted in agonies of death upon the cross. 

In a chapel adjoining the Cathedral, we were shown a 
splendid painting of Pope Pius Ninth, which was ordered 
in Italy for Louis Phillippe, but was not finished before 
his flight from France, when it was purchased by a gentle- 
man and presented to this Cathedral. There are said 
to be three thousand priests in Santiago. 

One morning, an American gentleman, who has long 
been a resident of the place, came for us with his carriage, 
and took us three miles into the country, to his Quinta, or 
country-seat. The mansion was one story, large in di- 
mensions, and square in shape, with large rooms plainly 
furnished. A corridor ran along the western side of the 
house. The kitchen was a hut, about forty feet from 
the dining-room door. A broad avenue of poplars led 
from the road to the house, through massive gates, near 
which stood a thatched porter's lodge, with squalid chil- 
dren lying about in the sun. 



84 A FAIR — SEWERAGE — WATER-WORKS. 

The first industrial exhibition was held during our stay 
in Santiago. The show was very poor — consisting for the 
most part of a few flowers, specimens of embroidery, and 
poor paintings. A noticeable feature was a figure of the 
Saviour, of life size, habited in flowing robes, and wearing 
under the crown of thorns, long curls, of brown ribbons. 

The sewerage of the city consists of ditches in the mid- 
dle of alternate streets, in which the garbage from the 
houses is thrown ; at eight o'clock every evening water is 
let into the ditches from gates in the Tajomar above the 
city, which rushes rapidly along, and carries all the filth 
into the river below. At right angles with these ditches 
are others passing under the rows of houses between the 
guttered streets. Although this system of sewerage is 
good, the carelessness of officials often permits the drains 
to become clogged, and the stench becomes intolerable. 

The city has command of an unlimited supply of water, 
but the earthern pipes that convey it are constantly out of 
order, and the water is turbid. The rich have filters made 
of a kind of porous stone abounding on the coast north 
of Caquimbo. Dripping through these filters into earthen 
jars, the water in this dry climate becomes so cool that no 
ice is necessary. For purposes of luxury, snow mixed 



SNOW LUXURIES — HOSPITALS. 85 

with hail is brought into the city daily from the Andes, a 
distance of four leagues, on mules which carry fifty pounds 
each, inclosed in straw between frames of hide net-work. 
It is used for making ices, — of which the favorite is water 
ice, flavored with coffee or chocolate. 

Fronting the Canada is the Hospital of San Juan de 
Dias, with accommodations for six hundred patients. It 
is spaciously and comfortably arranged, but the rooms are 
badly ventilated. San Francisco de Borja is a hospital 
for women, with accommodations for five hundred. It is 
not so well contrived in any respect as the other. There 
is a foundling hospital in Santiago, where infants are left 
day and night, without any possibility of detection from 
within, by means of a revolving box, in a wall, and a tap to 
call the attention of the porter ; the box is turned within, and 
the babe is received, never more to be recognized by the one 
who leaves it. Almost five hundred children are thus an- 
nually abandoned by their parents in Santiago. " As the 
convents," says Lieut. Gillis, in his interesting work on 
Chili, " are barred to all persons of the male sex (and in- 
deed to the female also), except the Archbishop, the Doc- 
tor, and to the new President, for a single visit, I took 
occasion to examine the arrangements of their intended 



86 CONVENTS — THE NUNS. 

domicil before they moved into it. The apartments open 
on long corridors, which communicate with extensive cham- 
bers for the use of the Abbess, and in bad weather afford 
them places for exercise. Each nun has a small sitting- 
room, a dormitory, and a servants' room, with conveniences 
for cooking, washing, and stowage of houshold necessities, a 
stream of water passing through the premises of every one. 

" The luxuriously disposed keep a servant, who is free 
to return to the world when tired of cloistral labor, but is 
not at liberty to go back and forth each day. 

" For the supply of their necessities, a sort of market 
is held daily, in a court of their property specially provi- 
ded, and hither are brought for sale, provisions and mate- 
rials, and such articles as their industry embraces. Nei- 
ther purchaser nor seller sees the §ther, but the commodity 
offered is placed within one of the recesses of a turnstile, 
filling an aperture of the wall, and if accepted, its value 
is returned in the same manner. 

" Many of the nuns are skilled in needle-work, and in 
making ornamental pastilles, fancy toys of earthen-ware,, 
and confectionery of various kinds, in the sale of which 
they employ servants outside. 

" In 1850, the convent numbered 75 nuns, and 176 
seculars." 



CAPUCHINS — THE CEMETERY. 87 

I was told that in one convent of the Capuchius, ap- 
plicants are onlj received upon the payment of two thou- 
sand five hunderd dollars. They sleep in holes made in 
the earth of the size of their bodies, with a cloth around 
them, and a stone for a pillow. If they encounter, when 
walking in their yard, their salutation is : " We are to 
die," and " We know it." Many of them die early from 
the hardships of such a life, and their money goes to the 
institution. 

There are seven monasteries and eight convents in San- 
tiago, wherein five hundred women are shut out from the 
world. 

The cemetery is a mile and a half from the plaza. 
About fifteen acres of ground, inclosed by high walls, are 
divided into lots by iron railings, for monuments, families, 
and the poor. In the cemetery are a chapel and buildings 
for workmen, a pretty garden, and rows of cypress trees. 
There are a few handsome mausoleums of marble, one of 
which is surmounted by a nude figure of Grief, executed 
in white marble. By an order of the Archbishop, this 
statue has been covered with a petticoat of white cloth, 
from the waist to the knees. As at Valpariso, there are 



88 NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 

perpetual sepulchres, graves for one year, and for the 
poor the bone-pit. 

In regard to education in Santiago, I quote Lieut. Gillis, 
who sajs : 

" The National Institute numbers 900 pupils, of whom 
260 are mternos, 2ind live wholly within its walls. The 
remainder are day scholars. To conduct the establishment 
there is a rector, a vice-rector, and thirty- six professors, 
all receiving their appointment and pay from government. 

" Instruction is free to all — the internos only being sub- 
ject to $150 per annum for their board. Corporal punish- 
ment is not permitted. Among the gravest oflfenses speci- 
fied are, not retiring at the appointed hour, leaving the 
Institute without permission, and neglect to confess at the 
appointed times; among the lightest are uncleanliness, 
and disrespect to their companions. Latin, Greek, Eng- 
lish, French, arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, geography, 
cosmography, drawing, history, rhetoric, and moral phi 
losophy ; religion, music and the elements of physics, chem- 
istry, mineralogy and natural history are taught. 

" The course occupies six years. Connected with the In- 
stitute is a normal school under the direction of the Minis- 
ter of Public Instruction ; twenty-eight young men are 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. , 89 

prepared here as teachers for the provinces. The course 
occupies three years, vaccination being one of the subjects 
of instruction. There are a number of boarding and day 
schools, under the direction of convents and individuals, 
which are well patronized. Besides these, there are thir- 
ty-five primary institutions at the cost of the municipality. 
The last, as almost all the day-schools for the humbler 
class, are held in rooms badly lighted, and worse ventila- 
ted, of whose vicinity one becomes aware at a long dis- 
tance, by the loud voices of all the children conning their 
lessons at the same time." 

There are, in the Republic of Chili, without counting 
Araucanian Indians, 1,439,120 inhabitants, of whom there 
are 13,256 more women than men. Of all the inhabitants 
of the Republic, 123,437 men, and 70,461 women, can 
read; total, 183,898— leaving 1,225,222 individuals of 
both sexes who cannot read. 

An academy was established in 1842 for the education 
of officers destined to service in the army and navy. Sixty 
cadets are educated at the expense of the State, but super- 
numeraries are admitted, and the number of actual students 
of the academy is twice that expressed in the statutes. 
There are besides schools under government patronage, for 



90 LIBRARY — NEWSPAPERS. 

instruction in the mechanic arts, agriculture, painting and 
music. The national library at the capital contains about 
twenty-one thousand volumes, which are accessible to the 
public from ten till one every day. No one is permitted 
to remove a volume from the building, though every facility 
is afforded for making extracts. 

In the way of journals, there was, when we visited San- 
tiag, one newspaper, El Auraeano, as large as one of our 
smallest dailies. It is the official organ, and rarely pub- 
lishes any thing but laws and decrees, and the reports of 
congressional proceedings. Two small monthly periodi- 
cals were devoted, one to the Catholic religion, and one to 
musical and dramatic criticisms. 

Very few foreigners, beside the diplomatic corps of some 
four or five countries, reside in Santiago, and the streets 
present an appearance very different from that of the port 
at Valparaiso, where there is much of the bustle and ac- 
tivity of one of our American cities. Early in the mor- 
ning the women, in their black dresses and montos,* throng 
the streets on their way to mass, and hundreds of peones 
from the country, noisily cry their wares. As noon ap- 
proaches, the heat of the sun drives every body within 

* A large black shawl worn over the head and shoulders. No other 
color than black is ever worn to church. 



THE CANADA. 91 

doors, where the people remain until its declining rays per- 
mit them to issue forth again. Night and day the clangor 
of church bells is incessant — as if it were a dogma of the 
mother church to make all the clashing possible, and to de- 
stroy the slumber of heretic foreigners. 

All Spanish cities are much alike, whether in the old or 
new world — one of their invariable features is an avenue 
adorned with trees, for promenading. The Alemeda or 
Canada of Santiago, is a broad walk about two miles in 
extent, with seats at intervals, under the triple lines of 
poplars on either side, of which the roots are bathed with 
streams of running water from the mountains. Streets five 
hundred feet in breadth, lie between the poplars and the 
houses. Hither in the twilight or the moonlight comes the 
fair Santiaguina to promenade and display her finery — of- 
ten wearing in the summer a full ball costume. In these 
charming avenues, people meet their acquaintances, sit or 
walk, as they choose, and enjoy social intercourse in the 
pure air, with the glorious mountains in full view. A 
walk in the Canada is the daily custom when the weather 
permits. On either side of the avenues, the ton dash up 
and down in their carriages, with coachmen and footmen 
in livery. Indeed, no family in Santiago can pretend to 



92 CELEBRATION OF THE DIEZ Y OCHO. 

respectability without keeping a carriage, and many of 
the equipages, imported from France and England, are 
magnificent. 

The 17th of October was ushered in by the firing of 
cannons from the forts on Santa Lucia, which simultane- 
ously displayed the national flag, and soon the city was 
gay with the banners that fluttered from every house-top. 
This patriotism is in part compulsory, for there is a fine of 
from one to twenty dollars for failure to show a flag. 
Foreign ministers raise the colors of their respective gov- 
ernments, but resident foreigners, undistinguished by of- 
ficial rank, are allowed to flaunt none but the Chileno stan- 
dard. 

On the 18th, at sunrise, the national air was sung by 
one hundred little boys and girls, in the Plaza de la Inde- 
pendencia. At noon there was a grand misa de gracia in 
the Cathedral. All the foreign diplomats (many of them 
in superb military dress) were present. The President 
arrived in his coach-and-four, escorted by a battalion of 
soldiers, and a detachment of cadets from the national 
military academy, who formed his body-guard. Entering 
the church, he seated himself in a large chair covered 
with crimson and gold, in the main aisle, fronting the cen- 



THE PRESIDENT AT CHURCH — A REVIEW. 93 

tral altar — two of the cadets, with fixed bayonets, taking 
position on either side. His Excellency was dressed in 
plain black frock coat and trousers, with a tri-color scarf 
passing over his shoulder, and having a chapeau plumed 
with one white ostrich feather. As part of the ceremony, 
the President was presented with a book and cross to kiss ; 
the osculation being repeated by each of the officials, 
while at the same time they were all fumigated with in- 
cense. 

The ceremonies occupied two hours, and the evening 
closed with illuminations, and a grand display of fireworks 
on the plaza. 

On the 20th, the President reviewed the troops— the 
plain Pampilla, two miles from Santiago, being used an- 
nually for military reviews, which are always a great spec- 
tacle to the thousands, who flock to witness them from 
country and city. As we passed through the streets on 
our way to the Pampilla, every thing wore a holiday as- 
pect. Gay crowds thronged the way, and the pulperias 
and confectionery shops swarmed with customers. Mean- 
while, the guasos and guasitos, or country lads and lasses, 
galloped from their homes to the parade ground on horse- 
back, and country families soberly followed in their primi- 



94 COUNTRY PEOPLE — PARADE GROUND. 

tive carriages — a kind of cart, of which the body and 
roof are made of boards, or bamboo and hide, with win- 
dows in the side, and curtains shielding the openings in 
front and rear — while the interior is made comfortable 
with hides. This vehicle is drawn by a yoke of oxen, 
whose driver, with his conical straw hat, poncho, and goad 
fifteen feet long, is a cos a de ver. Sometimes notes of the 
guitar, accompanied with very bad singing, proceeded 
from these carriages. 

On the grounds we found some six or seven thousand 
military drawn up in front of two lines of ox-carts, at least 
a mile in extent, with sufl5cient room between them for 
promenading and riding. Awnings were stretched from 
cart to cart, forming booths, where cakes, fruit and chicha 
were sold, harps twangled, and the cueca danced, while 
mounted peddlers, with panniers of every conceivable com- 
modity — guasos dashing about at fearful speed — beggars 
on horseback — and carriages filled with joyous people, con- 
tributed to form a scene of rare confusion and gayety. 

At two o'clock, the President and his staff arrived ; the 
review took place, and the troops, after a grand feu de 
Joie, marched back to the city, followed by an immense 



WEALTH OF SANTIAGO. 95 

crowd, while thousands of the country people remained on 
the FampiUa, for a week of frolic and carousal. 

In the evening, w^e walked in the Alemeda, which was 
thronged with six or seven thousand promenaders, while 
elegant dresses, with the brilliant uniforms of the naval 
and army officers, and the state dresses of the foreign 
diplomats, made the beautiful avenue gayer than ever. 

Santiago is immensely rich — richer perhaps, according 
to its population of 130,000, than any other city on this 
continent. The Chileno has few inducements to travel in 
his own country, and little ambition to go abroad. The 
great object of life is to accumulate wealth, and remove to 
the capital, to lavish it in costly furniture, equipage, and 
splendid living. 

As Santiago is more elevated than Valparaiso, it is sub- 
ject to greater extremes of heat and cold ; and during the 
hot months of December, January and February, the rich 
retire to their quintas, or to Valparaiso for the sea bathing. 

Manuel Montt, the President of the Republic during 
our stay in Chili, was then nearly sixty years of age. He 
was the first civilian who had filled the presidential chair, 
and was a gentleman of fine ability and liberal views. 

On the 24th of October, we bade adieu to Santiago, and 



96 RETURN TO VALPARAISO. 

returned to Valparaiso by a different route from that we 
had traveled in coming. From Casa Blanca there are 
two roads to the capital — the stage-coach route, long but 
comparatively safe, and the other passing over the famous 
Cuesta del Prado, which is traveled usually in gigs, and 
is rather dangerous. We thought we would risk its perils 
for the sake of its novelties, and so determined to take the 
latter road. At first we intended to charter hirlochos, but 
I dreaded the fatigue, and we finally took passage with a 
Frenchman, who drove a coach regularly between the 
cities. We hired his vehicle (which he called the Yalan- 
drino Chileno, or Chilian Swallow), and he pledged him- 
himself to drive just as we desired, and stop when we 
wished — which he of course utterly failed to do. 

At nine o'clock in the morning, we started from the ho- 
tel with three horses abreast, and in the suburbs stopped 
while three more horses were attached to our vehicle — one 
on either side of the first three, and the third, bestridden 
by a peon in a scarlet poncho, made fast to the carriage- 
tongue in front, with a thong of twisted hide some ten or 
twelve feet in length. We had then five horses abreast 
— no two of the same size or color, but all bruised and 
beaten till spotted — the harness a bewildering miscel- 



OVER THE PLAINS. 97 

lany of leather and rope, inscrutably attached to the coach 
and horses — and all under the guidance of the mounted 
peon. Our Gaul, who was to take no passengers but our- 
selves, begged us to allow him to have two friends with 
him in front. We weakly consented, and away we went, 
through squalid streets o? adobe huts, and avenues of pop- 
lar, until we reached an open plain, which on this side of 
the city is arid and uninteresting. 

The road was broad and dusty, the whip was constant- 
ly applied, and with our horses on a swift gallop, their 
heels flying in the air on either side of our coach, and our 
driver shrieking " Fuego al Campo ! " (fire to the plain), 
we ascended gradually for twenty-one miles to the foot of 
the cuesta. Here a relay of horses were feeding on a little 
piece of pasturage, and our peon was detached to drive them 
to the summit, when we were to change teams. Now com- 
menced the real ascent. The road is about forty feet wide, 
inclining to the hill, and we wound up and up, turning sharp 
corners and plunging through deep gorges, whose green 
banks were gay with flowers, and bristling with giant cac- 
tuses, till at last we reached the summit of twenty-four 
hundred feet ; and while our driver was changing horses, 
alighted to look back over the route we had traveled. A 

7 



98 DESCENT OF THE HILLS. 

verdant basin laj in an amphitheatre of green hills, with 
Santiago in the centre ; scarcely perceptible at this great 
distance amid its dark green poplars, while far beyond 
rose the mighty Andes, glittering between fleecy clouds in 
the morning sun. The air was bright and pure and sweet, 
and I felt that glorious exaltation of the spirit, which the 
subtlest and deepest of our poor utterances cannot de- 
scribe. 

Regretfully we mounted again into our vehicle, and re- 
sumed our journey. We had now in front three horses 
abreast; and behind, two attached to the coach with halters 
to retard our descent. The zigzags were short and steep, 
and the angles so acute that, as we whirled furiously around 
them, our wheels gave out a harsh, whizzing sound that 
thrilled every nerve ; but down we went, never once pau- 
sing, on a rapid trot, our Frenchman, who was to drive 
just as we wanted, declaring that he would beat the loco- 
motive. As we neared the level ground again, the zig- 
zags grew longer ; our horses were again hitched in front, 
and we dashed away over the dusty road through a coun- 
try of sparsely covered shrubs and stunted trees, with 
here and there a squalid hut of mud and sticks, until 
twelve o'clock, when we entered the town of Curacavi, 






THE CUESTA ZAPATA. 99 

twenty miles from Santiago. In this cluster of adobe 
hovels, we remained long enough to lunch and exchange 
for fresh horses. After a travel of some miles further, 
the monotony of which was only varied by meeting ox- 
carts, laden with merchandize, we arrived at the foot of 
the Cuesta Zapata, and while our cochero halted again for 
fresh horses, we alighted to rest ourselves by walking. 
Following a path made by the cattle, we ascended a part of 
the mountain, while our coach followed the windings of the 
road. This cuesta is eighteen hundred and fifty feet above 
the sea, and from the top, looking down the western side, 
the zigzags are all seen at once, resembling an immense 
stairway. Some fifty ox-carts were ascending and de- 
scending, in the distance looking like giant bees, crawling 
along the sides of a gigantic bee-hive. Encountering 
these carts is one of the perils of the road, but we descend- 
ed this cuesta more slowly than the other, and although 
we came in collision with one of the carts, no damage was 
done. Reaching the plain, we crossed a stream of water, 
now insignificant, but which, with a few hours' rain, be- 
comes an impassable torrent. 

The ten miles to Casa Blanca we traveled at a gallop, 
never resting a moment — the whip going, the horses' heels 



100 RETURN TO VALPARAISO. 

fljing in close proximity to our windows, and the scarlet 
poncho of our driver gallantly streaming in the wind. It 
was twilight when we drew up in front of the posada at 
Casa Blanca — very tired, but extremely thankful to have 
arrived in safety. On the following day, reached Val- 
paraiso at noon. 



CHAPTER XII. 

The great event of the foreigner's life at Valparaiso, is 
the semi-monthly arrival of the mail-steamer, bringing 
news from home. We long eagerly for the day she is ex- 
pected, and hail with rapture the first breath of her smoke 
on the distant horizon. As she reaches her anchorage, we 
watch with a glass the transfer of the mail-bags to the 
boat, and calculate the moments which must elapse before 
we receive our letters. 

While we were in Santiago, the opening of the Valparai- 
so and Santiago Railroad (which had been completed as far 
as Vina del Mar), was celebrated with great pomp and 
religious ceremonies, the engines being blessed and sprin- 
kled with holy water by the bishop himself. The road as 
surveyed is one hundred and twenty miles in length. It 
was commenced in 1852, and before we left Chili, had 
been finished to Quillota, a distance of forty miles, at a 
cost of $3,500,000. The estimated expense of complet- 



102 A CHILENO RAILROAD. 

ing the road to Santiago is $5,500,000. The engines were 
brought from England, and the passenger cars from Bel- 
gium. The latter were similar to our old stage-coaches, 
in shape and capacity, trimmed with fine drab cloth, and 
highly finished. The second class cars were merely bodies, 
furnished with seats and without roofs. The road for some 
distance runs at the foot of a rocky bluff, and is protected 
on the side next the sea by a massive wall of masonry ; 
passing then through a short tunnel and a deep cut, the 
cars arrive at Vina del Mar, seven miles from Valparaiso. 
This has always been a favorite resort with pleasure-seek- 
ers, who used to come hither on horseback, every Sunday 
and feast day. Since the road is completed, Vina del 
Mar has been more popular than ever ; and one day we 
made an excursion to the place. It is a little valley upon 
an arm of the sea, watered by a small stream, and has 
several posadas, eating-houses, and country-seats belong- 
ing to people of the city. One of these latter, the pro- 
prietress kindly gave us permission to visit. It was in the 
rainy season, and the valley was beautifully green, while 
the hill-sides were gay with flowers. From the road we 
passed through a long avenue of poplars, entering a yard 
in front of a large, low adobe house, with a corridor in 



VILLA AT VINA DEL MAR. 103 

front. Behind the mansion was a small plat of ground, 
adorned with all the choice flowers of this and other coun- 
tries, in full bloom. The flowers were in beds, with ele- 
vated, narrow paths between, and each surrounded with a 
little ditch for irrigation. Beyond this yet, on the hill- 
slope, under the shade of some small trees, was built a 
bath of masonry, through which flowed a mountain rivulet, 
giving life and freshness to the gay parterre below. We 
procured some bread and cheese at one of the cafes, and 
with strawberries from a bed near us, we made our dinner 
in the shade of an immense fig tree that rose forty feet 
above us ; and so returned to the city. 

On the 16th, there was a grand procession at Valparaiso, 
in honor of the Immaculate Conception. All the images 
of the churches were borne through the streets on men's 
shoulders. One figure of the Virgin had a new dress for 
the occasion made of a flowing robe of blue silk, with 
curls of ribbon falling to her shoulders, a wreath of flow- 
ers on the head, and long ribbons passed around the waist, 
and terminating in the hands of two little girls represent- 
ing angels in the act of leading the Virgin. A woman 
intended to represent Judith, carried a hideous counter- 
feit of Holofernes's head in one hand, and a large knife in 



4 

104 CELEBRATION OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 

the other. Many priests followed in their robes, chanting ; 
and an immense rabble of the devout packed the narrow 
streets, and moved confusedly to different measures of 
music — the band performing " Bowery Girls," among 
other solemn pieces, with great distinctness. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

" The portion of Chili, north of the Yallej of Huasco," 
says Lieutenant Gillis, " is the richest in mineral wealth, 
particularly silver. In 1850, there were worked in the 
department of Copiapo, two hundred and ninety mines of 
silver, six of gold, and thirty of copper. Chanarcillo is 
considered the richest silver mine in the world. It was 
discovered in 1832, by a man hunting goats. He sat 
down to rest on a projecting rock that gave way, and dis- 
closed the pure silver. This mine also yields mercury, 
copper, bismuth, tin, lead, arsenic, cobalt — in fact, almost 
the whole range of minerals are found within its depths. 

" The province of Coquimbo is one of the most produc- 
tive copper districts in the world, and with more skilful 
engineers and suitable machinery, the more precious met- 
als could be obtained in a remunerative quantity. 

" The region between the parallels of 80° and 31° south 
latitude, and 74° of longitude, is filled with veins of gold. 



106 MINERAL WEALTH OF CHILI. 

silver, quicksilver, copper, and other rare combinations of 
metals. I shall only mention two — Arqueros and Algo- 
dones, one to the north and the other to the south of Co- 
quimbo river. They were accidentally discovered by a 
hunter stumbling over some rolling stones containing a 
large percentage of silver, lying at the bottom of a ravine. 
"When his good luck became known, a crowd went to the 
spot and picked up 10,000 dollars' worth of ore from the 
surface. Soon after the vein from which these stones 
came was discovered, and also two others, since which time 
they have yielded in all more than four millions of dollars. 
There are gold and salt mines to the south among the 
Araucanians, but the former are not worked. Iron is 
found in small quantities. 

" Valuable coal mines exist half way between Talca- 
huano and Concepcion, on the river Andalien ; the coal is of 
good quality, and the position such that boats can be load- 
ed from the mouth of the mine. 

" Extensive coal deposits also exist at Coronel and Col- 
cura, a few leagues south of the Biobio, on the coast." 

The coal is extremely inflammable, and the engineers 
complain that it burns out their fire-bars. It is taken to 



TRANSPORTATION OF SILVER. 107 

Valparaiso, Santiago, and California in large quantities, 
and is delivered on board ship, at five dollars a ton. 

In the northern provinces of Chili, there is almost un- 
limited wealth in silver and copper, but owing to the 
scarcity of water and fuel in many places, and the great 
difficulty of transporting the product, many of the mines 
have been abandoned, while others yield but a small profit. 
Nevertheless, speculation in mining sometimes almost 
amounts to mania ; in many cases owners become discour- 
aged — think they do not acquire wealth rapidly enough — 
and sell out at a low figure, and the purchaser perhaps 
strikes a rich lode, and doubles his investment. There are 
proprietors of mines living at Santiago, whose income is 
so enormous, that they are ignorant of the exact amount. 

Smelting, where there is fuel, is sometimes done at the 
mines, but usually at the port, and much metal is shipped 
in a crude state. Trains of mules laden with silver and 
copper ore in bags, or smelted bars, under military escort, 
and headed, each train, by an old mare, called the madri- 
na, to whose neck a little bell is hung — wend their way 
through the mountains and over the rugged country, bear- 
ing their precious cargoes to the ports. On their return 
the mules are tied heads to tails, and never losing the 



108 CHILENO CURRENCY. 

sound of the madrina's bell, slowly and patiently regain 
the mines. In Valparaiso the bar-silver passes through 
the hands of the British consul, and I have seen upon the 
floor of his office, a pile of silver bars, fifteen feet long, 
four feet high, and four feet wide, each bar valued at from 
$2,200, to $2,500. 

The currency of Chili is metallic. The silver is deci- 
mal like our own, and quite as handsome. Formerly there 
were silver coins in circulation, which were made by drop- 
ping melted silver on a hard surface, and when cool weigh- 
ing it, and stamping its value in shillings (reales) upon one 
side, and the cross on the other. These coins were called 
plata de la cruz — silver of the cross ; they are now with- 
drawn from circulation. In gold there are ounces, half- 
ounces, quarters, and eighths, and a new coinage of ten- 
dollar pieces called condors and tivos. There is also in 
copper, the cent and half-cent. Metallic currency has 
some disadvantages, for it is heavy, and the silver is incon- 
veniently bulky. Large sums are carried in stout linen 
bags, and it is common to meet gentlemen in the streets, 
with their hands on their way to business, or followed by 
peones, carrying the money-bags on their backs. 

In Valparaiso there is a banker of immense wealth, who 



A CHILENO CRCESUS. 109 

knows that he is worth $2,000,000, but cannot tell how 
much more. He has a small office on one of the principal 
streets, where I have seen two or three bushels of ounces 
on the counter, as he was shoveling them uncounted into 
the scales. . 



CHAPTER XIV. 

There is a pleasure-garden in the eastern part of the 
citj, much resorted to by all classes — ^not because the 
place has many attractions, but because there is no other 
means of varying the monotony of existence ; within this 
semi- circle of hills, where you cannot drive in more than 
one direction without climbing some acclivity, I always en- 
joyed my after-dinner rides to the Polanco (as the gar- 
den is called), from the novel life I was sure to encounter 
on the way. 

Descending the steep rocky gorge, by which, from our 
residence, we reach the streets, we beckon to a passing 
hirlochero, in whose vehicle we seat ourselves with the 
direction, " Yaya al Polanco," and away we go over the 
badly paved road at a full gallop. You are jolted against 
your neighbor, you knock your bonnet against the side, 
you bound against the top ; but you are riding for pleas- 
ure, and so grasping a strap, and bracing your feet, you 



GOING TO THE POLANCO. Ill 

endeavor to enjoy the exercise, consoling yourself with 
the reflection that it will help you to digest your dinner. 

The first person we notice is an old guaso^ mounted on 
a fine horse, with his wife behind him. He wears a bright 
poncho and straw hat. Her dress is a gay calico, a shawl, 
and a Panama hat. The horse's bridle is finely plated, 
with a continuation of the reins fringed at the end — which 
serves the double purpose of whipping the horse, or lash- 
ing any unlucky cur within reach. The bridle-bit is pow- 
erful enough to break the horse's jaw ; and on the saddle 
are five or six shaggy pillones, or woolen cloths, which al- 
most cover his thighs. The rowels of the guaso^s spurs 
are as large as tea-plates ; his stirrups are made of a block 
of carved wood six or eight inches in diameter — forming a 
complete protection for the feet in passing through rocky 
gorges and mountain defiles. On one side of the saddle 
hangs a coiled lasso, made fast to the saddle. The lasso 
is made of twisted hide about as thick as one's thumb, and 
some fifty or sixty feet in length, with a slip-noose at the 
end ; the mounted guaso is never without it. The skill 
and precision with which it is thrown is surprising. When 
the guaso desires to catch an animal while running, he takes 
the coil of the lasso in his right hand, puts his horse at full 



112 THE LASSO — EARLY PRACTICE. 

speed, and whirling his lasso to give it momentum, hurls its 
loop around the neck, horns, or leg of the animal, with as 
much certainty as a skilful ball-player sends his ball. 
The horse is trained, so that the instant the lasso leaves 
his riders' hand, he stops and braces himself, to bear the 
strain of the captured animal. The men are bred to this 
exercise from infancy ; and there is not a ragamuflSn boy 
old enough to walk, but is forever practicing his art on 
poultry, dogs, goats, and sheep, or any small animal that 
comes in his way. One day, while walking on the Plaza 
Ancha, we saw one of these little wretches throw his 
lasso over the head of a passing water-carrier, whom he 
dragged, half choked, from his donkey. The urchin drop- 
ped his lasso and ran for life, while the aguatero relieved 
his feelings with all the expletives in the language. 

Hurrying onward to the Polanco, we meet and pass other 
birlochos, gentlemen in gay ponchos, mounted on prancing 
horses ; drunken sailors galloping the street at a break- 
neck pace, knowing little of horsemanship and caring less ; 
and guasos on mules and donkeys with panniers of fruit 
and vegetables. 

Here is a peon, with a long pole over his shoulder, from 



STREET CURIOSITIES. 113 

which hang bunches of tallow candles velas de seho ; and 
there another with a bundle of country brooms, made of 
broom-corn tied about the end of a rough stick. On our 
left, we have just passed an hombre, with a number of 
gay feather dusters made from the plumage of the South 
American ostrich ; just before us is a man carrying two ele- 
gant robes of guanaco skins — a soft, fine fur, buff and 
white, brought from the Straits of Magellan, and used here 
in winter to rest the feet on ; coming toward us is another 
with a robe of ostrich- skins, with gray and white feathers 
some four inches in length. These are also from the 
straits, and are used for the same purposes as the gua- 
nacho skins. 

At the corners, organ-grinders with monkeys, discourse 
music to the delighted populace — more fortunate than the 
troubadours of the north, for instead of being continually 
routed by the police, they are here absolutely paid by the 
authorities. We pass men seated on the ground, with 
broad shallow baskets containing cakes and dalees for sale. 
By and by, as it grows dark, they will light small lanterns, 
and doze over their wares till bedtime. 

Near the garden we cross a bridge that spans a wide 

deep sewer, now nearly dry, but which, in the rainy season, 
8 



114 PULPERIAS — PEOPLE — POLICE. 

is a raging torrent. On one side of the estero stands a 
row of mean houses, pulperias, where they sell the 
liquors of the country ; and despachos, where all sorts of 
meat, vegetables and fruits may be had. The sidewalks 
are unpaved, and the doors stand wide open, discovering 
the filthy earthen floors of the interior, always a little 
lower than the street — where unwashed, uncombed buyers 
and sellers are chaffing together, half-naked, squalid chil- 
dren are playing, and fat, greasy women are seated on the 
ground t wangling guitars. 

We returned to the city just as a detachment of the 
police in the Plaza del Orden, were being detailed to their 
different beats for the night. The policemen are divided 
into two forces, the Vigilantes, who preserve order during 
the day, and the Serenos, who watch by night. They are 
uniformed in coarse blue cloth ; a part of each watch is 
mounted, and are all armed with sabres. The vigilantes 
go to their beats at daylight, and are authorized to arrest 
every one violating the peace or public decency, and to 
keep the streets clean and orderly. One is usually placed 
at the intersection of every two streets. At twilight the 
serenos are marched to the relief of the vigilantes. The 
sereno is never allowed to leave his beat, on any account, 



EFFICIENCY OP THE POLICE. 115 

until a comrade has responded to his whistle. A house- 
holder may send him to call a priest or physician, but if 
either of these reside outside of his district, he must pass the 
message through his comrades. The sereno examines the 
street-doors of the houses, and if they are not properly 
secured, he notifies the residents. 

After ten o'clock, he cries the hour, describing the 
weather in a prolonged sing-song tone ; and the presence 
of belated persons is announced by whistles, sounding 
from sereno to sereno, to put all on the alert. 

The number and efficiency of the police afford compara- 
tive security ; and, on the whole, I think life and property 
are safer in the midnight streets of Valparaiso, than in 
many cities of the United States. In street encounters 
with the disorderly and drunken, the police use their sa- 
bres without mercy. In regard to their qualities as cen- 
sors of cleanliness and decency, they are not so efficient, 
being ignorant of what cleanliness and decency are, ex- 
actly. 

Dogs are one of the pests of the city. They are of all 
kinds and colors, from the tiny white Lucia poodle (the pet 
of the parlor, washed, combed and flea-d every morning), 
down to the mongrel cur of mangy constitution and un- 



116 DOGS OF VALPARAISO. 

sightly aspect. They roam about the streets and lie in 
the doorways ; and hundred sthat have no naasters, live 
"wild on the hills, and gather their food by night from the 
offal thrown on the beach. One day, to our great horror, 
a donkey fell dead near our door ; but the hungry dogs 
pounced upon him, and in less than twelve hours no ves- 
tige of the deceased remained. Of course, the greater 
part of these dogs belong to the very poor ; and every hill- 
side hovel harbors two or three great half-starved brutes, 
the terror of every passer-by. 



I 



CHAPTER XV. 

On the first of May, the Minister of War died in Val- 
paraiso. From eight o'clock in the morning until sunset, 
guns were fired every quarter of an hour ; and on the day 
following the minister's death, his remains were taken to 
the church, where the grand mass was said ; the body was 
then placed in a rich funeral car, drawn by six richly ca 
parisoned black horses, and removed to Santiago, with a 
numerous escort, as far as the suburbs of Valparaiso, of 
the military, and the native and foreign ofiicials. 

On the 26th of May, the first church building for the 
protestant worship in the Republic of Chili, was consecra- 
ted at Valparaiso. Catholicism is the established religion 
of the country, and the law tolerates no other ; but there 
are now so many foreigners resident in Valparaiso, that 
the authorities do not like to interfere in their mode 
of worship, and are rather disposed to ignore the subject. 
Our humble edifice was permitted neither bell nor steeple ; 



118 PROTESTANTISM — CATHOLIC CEREMONIES. 

yet by its architecture it was readily distinguished as a 
church. Every Sunday, a crowd of the common people 
gathered around the high board fence that inclosed it, and 
there was evidently a great deal of curiosity about the 
forms of heretic devotion. No progress is made in the 
conversion of the natives to Protestantism ; and I do not 
see how there is to be a change in this respect. If a Bible 
is presented to a child or adult, the fact is at once made 
known to the confessor, who of course condemns the book, 
and bids the penitent beware of the heretic. As in other 
Catholic countries, the priests here have the strongest hold 
upon the devout and emotional natures of the women. 
Many of the educated of the other sex, seeing and feeling 
the absurdities of the Romish church, are lapsing into in- 
fidelity. 

In the port at Valparaiso, the Host is now carried to 
the dying, by a priest with a red umbrella, preceded by 
three boys with a bell and lighted candle. As the proces- 
sion pass by, all good Catholics kneel and utter a brief 
prayer for the departing soul to which the sacred wafer is 
passing. Formerly, the Host was conveyed with great 
pomp of military, bells and lights, and was the occasion of 
constant difficulties between the natives and the heretic 



THE CHILENO PRIESTS. 119 

foreigners. The authorities finally prohibited these out- 
ward demonstrations in the port, but they still continue at 
the capital and other places. The custom of kneeling as 
he viatico passes, is so sacredly observed, that even the 
}articrpants in a waltz will pause and bend the knee when 
he sound of the bell is heard. 

Intolerance and superstition, although bad enough in 
"Valparaiso, are unchecked at Santiago. The character of 
tie clergy is low, but they tell their people, '^ You must 
lire what we preach, not what we practice." They are 
v>wed to celibacy, yet many of them are known to have 
l.Tge families of children ; and pretty country cousins are 
fequent guests at their households. A friend of mine 
fold me that he once attended mass at a town in the inte- 
rior, where the congregation, impatient at the absence of 
the priest, sent for his reverence. Their messenger found 
him at a cock-fight, which he refused to leave until the 
exciting combat was ended. Recently a Chileno died 
leaving a thousand dollars in the hands of an executor, to 
be expended in masses for his soul ; the native priests 
would only consent to perform five hundred masses for the 
money. Accordingly the executor, who had an eye to 
business, wrote to Spain, and procured a thousand masses 



120 INDULGENCES — MENDICANT FRIARS. 

for six hundred dollars. The church of Chili then sued 
him for defrauding it out of its legitimate business. 

At the door of evej church in Santiago, printed indul 
gences are for sale on fast days. The usual tenor of the( 
indulgence is, that whoever will observe faithfully certaii^ 
ceremonies, shall have permission to commit minor sins fo 
a specified length of time. The applicant kneels, a ligh 
ed candle is placed in his hand, a badge is thrown over hi 
neck, and a priest mutters a prajer. At the close of thi 
ceremony, the applicant rises, pays a dollar, and receive 
a printed indulgence, with his name written in the blan; 

space, certifying, " In the name of God," that he, 

, is permitted (for instance) " to eat meat one mont 

during Lent." i 

Bareheaded friars clothed in coarse woolen gowns, with 
sandals upon their feet, and carrying a small crucifix, beg 
from door to door in the cities — presenting the crucifix to 
be kissed, and expecting a real in return. On the street 
at the foot of our hill in Valparaiso, is a shop where sacred 
images are manufactured and sold.- The walls are covered 
with figures of all the saints in the Catholic calendar — 
varying in size from six inches to six feet. Among the 
rest was a vivid representation of the Passion of the 



CHILENO PEONES AT WORK. 121 

Saviour — a figure nailed to a cross, with blood starting 
from the forehead, hands and side. 

On the 14th of August, we went by rail a little dis- 
tance into the country, to dine with a friend who has a 
contract for building some of the railroad bridges. We 
found our friend livmg in a shanty near a gorge in the 
coast range of mountains, where the grade is very steep, 
and where five bridges are required within one mile. A 
large number of peones were at work here, each of whom 
the contractor paid five reales a day, and furnished with 
a sufficiency of bread and beans. They had a brush 
shanty in which to sleep at night ; a stone oven to bake 
their bread, and a large iron kettle to cook their beans. 
The bread was leavened with yeast ; pieces of the dough 
were weighed, made into loaves, and covered with a dirty 
poncho, and then placed in the sun to rise. At noon, 
old nail kegs, filled with cooked beans, were placed on the 
ground ; three or four laborers squatted around each keg, 
and with a piece of bread in one hand, and in the other a 
stick flattened at the end, or mussel-shell, with which to 
scoop up the beans, they ate their dinner. When their 
hunger was satisfied, they threw themselves on the ground, 
and drew their hats over their eyes for a few moments' si- 



122 KATLROAD BRIDGES — GRAND MASS. 

esta. The dress of these peones consisted of a wide pair 
of cotton drawers, a shirt, and a conical straw hat. The 
poncho is worn mornings and evenings, and when the 
weather is cool. At night, it is used for bed covering. 

The railroad bridges are very expensive structures. 
The lumber for their construction is all Norway pine ; 
and the iron girders are brought from England. The 
piers and abutments are built of very fine granite (re- 
sembling the famous Quincy stone), which is found in great 
abundance near by. 

On the diez y ocho of this year, I attended grand mass 
in the church of La Matriz. The building was decorated 
with flags ; and inside, the two rows of pillars were adorned 
with gay ribbons, and the altar flamed with lighted candles. 
A soldier stood on guard at each door to prevent the in- 
gress of the lower classes. The church was soon filled 
with ladies, wearing superb black silks, vails, diamonds 
and white gloves, who knelt on mats, spreading their 
flounced skirts to the utmost extent. We arrived at ten 
o'clock in the morning ; at eleven, the Iniendente, with 
the officers of the army and navy, and the foreign consuls, 
escorted by military and a band of music, entered the 
church, and threaded their way through the kneeling 



TRIBULATIONS OF THE DEVOUT, 123 

groups to the chairs which had been placed for them. 
The religious ceremonies were similar to those at Santiago, 
but less imposing. The bishop of Valparaiso officiated. 
The attendance of military and naval officers at these ob- 
servances is enforced by the loss of a month's salary for 
every failure to be present. I was extremely amused by 
the performances of one of these near me. He was dressed 
in full uniform and watched the ceremonies very narrowly, 
lest he should not make his genuflections at the proper 
time. At his feet was a lady whose skirts covered a vast 
area, and every time the officer knelt, he planted the end 
of his sword firmly upon her dress, which she attempted 
to extricate — so that their time was occupied in the inef- 
fectual struggle. The Danish Consul, whose gorgeous uni- 
form had evidently been made for him when he was a much 
thinner man, told me that, after kneeling fourteen times, 
he gave up in despair and exhaustion, and remained 
quietly seated during the rest of the service. 

On the night of the same day, the city was lighted with 
gas for the first time. At the plaza Victoria, an inscrip- 
tion was formed of small jets of gas in these words : Val- 
paraiso, Honor d la {lustre Municipalidad — Honor to the 
illustrious Municipality. These the Intendente lighted 
with his own hand, and then the street-jets were lighted. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

On the evening of the 28th of September, we experi- 
enced the severest shock of earthquake that occurred 
during our residence in Chili. It came upon us without a 
premonitory noise or tremor — a tremendous shock, that 
brought us all to our feet in consternation, and rocked the 
house till every door, window and dish rattled again. 
With a common impulse we sprang to the door and out 
upon the hill. Two more shocks followed, each increasing 
in violence. It was dark, but in the streets below us we 
could hear the hum of voices, as the people rushed out of 
their houses, praying to heaven, and calling upon each 
other ; while the dogs added terror to the scene by their 
doleful howls. 

"We knew our house to be perfectly safe ; an earth- 
quake which could demolish that, would destroy the city. 
Nevertheless, on the slightest tremor of the earth, an 
irresistible impulse of flight always possessed us. 



EARTHQUAKE EXPERIENCES. 125 

No buildings were thrown down bv this shock, but the 
walls of many were cracked, and immense damage was 
done in the fracture of window-glass and crockery. The 
motion of the earthquake seemed to be a perpendicular vi- 
bration, like great heavings from beneath ; it was felt on 
the ships in the bay, and produced a heavy swell. During 
the next twelve days we had nine more, and we seemed in 
a fair way to be shaken out of our belief that the earth 
was terra firma. At another time, we had six earth- 
quakes in one week ; and in the three years we lived in 
Chili, we felt fifty-eight shocks. Our nerves became acute- 
ly sensitive to the temblor. When all other noises passed 
unheeded, the faintest roar, or feeblest motion of an earth- 
quake caused us to start and turn pale. Many a time I 
have been awakened in the night by the trembling of the 
bedstead — wondered in terror if that would amount to any 
thing, and if the motion did not continue, dropped to sleep 
again. But if the shock is severe, away you go out of 
doors, regardless of clothing and propriety, and it is not 
until the earth is calmed, that you realize your situation. 
Ridiculous scenes constantly take place ; a very severe 
shock occurred one morning in 1851, just as the American 
Consul had retired, after his return from a party, to which 



126 STORMS — CLIMATE. 

he had worn his uniform and chapeau. At the first warn- 
ing he leaped from bed, dashed on his embroidered coat 
and chapeau, and ran out upon the hill, utterly destitute of 
pantaloons. Many people will not sleep, nor even sit in a 
room with closed doors, lest they should be fastened in their 
frames during an earthquake, and so prevent egress. 

The administrador of a mine in Copiap6, told me that 
he was once in the depths of the mine, four hundred and 
fifty yards from the surface, during an earthquake, and 
that the noise was like that of a thousand gongs, while the 
motion was scarcely perceptible. 

During the three years of our residence in Chili, we had 
but one thunder-storm, though they are very frequent on 
the other side of the Andes. Indeed, if one had the 
arrangement of a climate to suit oneself, one could hardly 
make one more perfect than that of Chili. In Valparaiso, 
the mercury ranges from 50° to 80°, and rarely exceeds 
either extreme. The nights are always cool, and I inva- 
riably slept under one heavy blanket, and sometimes two. 
Thick clothes are always comfortable within doors, and in 
the shade without. 

On account of the coolness of the weather, everybody 
wears a shawl, and the women have a curious habit of 



SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS. 127 

crouching on the floor, with one foot folded under them, in 
order to keep warm. 

From the 1st of April until the 1st of October, " rain 
may be looked for " in Chili; although the rains frequentlj 
do not begin till June, and cease in August. After that, 
as certainly as the day dawns, the sun shines. 

The people here are divided into two classes : the gen- 
try, and the peones or peasants. Of the former class, the 
men are rather below the medium size. They invariably 
have black hair and eyes — with a sallow complexion which 
is sometimes very dark. Many of them are well educated 
in the Chileno schools and colleges, and a few have trav- 
eled in Europe or the United States ; but they are indo- 
lent and effeminate, never doing to-day what can be done 
to-morrow — fond of gaming and dress — inveterate smok- 
ers, and loose in their notions of morality. 

The beauty of the women has been greatly overrated. 
When they wore the graceful black veil, which harmonized 
so well with their jet-black hair and eyes, they had attrac- 
tions which they do not possess now, when dressed in col- 
ors. As they approach middle life, they incline to flesh. 
They are indolent and slovenly. The Chileno lady rises 
late ; she dresses hastily, throwing a charitable shawl 



128 LADIES AND SERVANTS. 

about her to hide manifold sins of omission. Her little 
feet are carelessly thrust into slippers, her hair is plaited 
in two braids that fall down her back. Her ablutions are 
merely a form of politeness to the wash-bowl. In this 
dishabille she dawdles about, amusing herself with some 
fancy work, until ennui drives her to seek refuge in shop- 
ping or paying visits. Then she makes her appearance in 
all the splendor of silks and diamonds, never wearing 
muslin or calico, and preferring a tattered silk for morn- 
ing dress, to the most exquisite cotton fabric. 

Servants are abundant, and if one does not please, a bet- 
ter may be had ; so that the ladies here are relieved entirely 
of one of the most harassing responsibilities of northern 
housekeepers. A young girl never leaves the house of her 
parents unless accompanied by some member of the family 
or a female servant. If she pays a visit, the duenna waits 
for her at the front door, or gossips with the other servants. 
Interviews between young ladies and gentlemen never take 
place except in the presence of others. Of course, mar- 
riages of convenience are frequent. There are also many 
instances of matrimony within the forbidden degrees of con- 
sanguinity — even to the union of uncles with nieces, and 
step-fathers with step-daughters. The honey-moon is pass- 



CUSTOMS OF THE COUNTRY. 129 

ed in strict seclusion ; after that, the husband and wife 
usually occupy separate apartments. 

Children at birth are almost invariably given in charge 
to a wet-nurse, whose child in turn is nursed by a poorer 
woman. This nurse of the nurse's child, in nine cases out 
of ten, has never been married. 

Some of the social customs of the Chilenos are peculiar. 
Hospitality to evening visitors is expressed in tea and cakes 
— the hostess always pouring out the beverage, and a ser- 
J vant passing it to the guests. Yerha Mata, the leaves of 
a shrub imported from Paraguay, is the beverage of the 
common people, and is also much used by the better classes ; 
though the Chinese plant takes its place in the parlor. The 
i/erha mata has the taste of tea, with a faint savor of to- 
bacco, and is a slightly exhilarating drink. It is always pre- 
pared with sugar in the dish, from which it is drank, or 
sucked, boiling hot, through a tube. The poor use little 
gourds with a bamboo tube called a hambillia^ while the 
rich indulge in elegant chased silver or china cups, with a 
hamhilUa of silver. 

Evening parties (tertuUas) are much in fashion, the re- 
freshments being usually cakes, ices and tea. 

Thirty years ago, the Chilenos welcomed all foreigners 



130 CHILENO HOSPITALITIES. 

with overflowing hospitality, and with a primitive warmth 
and simplicity that was delightful. Such welcome is now 
seldom shown, except in remote places in the country, 
where the mata cup with its bambillia is still passed from 
your neighbor's lips, no matter how old or ugly, to your 
own ; and where your hostess will pause in front of you, 
with her dish of dulces in one hand and spoon in the other, 
while she envelopes a peach in its syrup to gently thrust 
it into your expectant mouth, and so pass on around the 
circle. Now, letters of introduction, although not abso- 
lutely necessary, still facilitate your entrance into society. 
A gentleman leaves his card for you, and at your first 
visit will " celebrate greatly acquaintance with you," and 
assures you " that the house and all it contains are wholly 
at your service" — high-sounding but meaningless phrases, 
though it is true that you have the entree of his house, 
where his wife will receive you cordially. The saloon is 
always lighted at evening, where you can drop in without 
knocking, at nine or ten, to take tea, and remain until 
midnight, or perhaps later ; music, conversation and tea 
are the amusements. The gentleman of the house is not 
often present, spending his evenings with other companions, 
and perhaps in nob so innocent a manner. Sunday is the 



131 

day for complimentary visiting, calls being made at two or 
three in the afternoon, and also at twilight. Ladies are 
rarely attended home from evening visits by any one but a 
servant, custom not permitting beaux to accompany them, 
unless affianced, and then with the servant also. Ac- 
quaintances always address each other by the given name, 
with the prefix of Don, Dona, or Senorita, an affectionate 
custom much less ceremonious than our own. 

The tender love between mother and daughter, as it ex- 
ists with us, is unknown. The child being at birth intrusted 
to a wefc nurse, goes later to school, where she sees her 
mother but seldom ; she is constantly under the care of 
servants, and there can be but little confidence between 
them, which the confessional probably lessens. If she 
wishes sympathy or advice she goes to a companion, look- 
ing upon her mother, who should be her best friend, as her 
natural enemy. Never mingling with boys at school, and 
when grown, never enjoying freely the society of the 
other sex, she is ignorant of her own powers of pleasing 
or conversation. In nine cases out of ten, married with- 
out consulting her wishes, she is an indifferent wife of an 
unfaithful husband. In religion she is willing to be guided 
solely by her confessor, without consulting her own judg- 



132 CHILENO WOMEN — SOCIAL HABITS. 

ment. The intellect of the females I think superior to 
that of the male sex, but in Chili there is little to excite 
their ambition. There are no lectures, no literary societies, 
but few cultivated minds to come in contact with. There 
is no opportunity of traveling in their own country, ex- 
cept up and down the coast to a few miserable ports, and 
back and forth from Valparaiso to Santiago. Both sexes 
confess to apathy. " Personal labor is considered degrad- 
ing. Want of occupation encouraged by the climate soon 
confirms a habit of indolence, where there is no mental en- 
ergy to shake it ofi*, and in a brief while the youth, who 
might have become a man of ability and enterprise, falls 
irreclaimably into idleness and listlessness." Thus life is 
one monotonous round — to the female, of going to mass in 
the morning, attending to a few domestic duties during 
the day, and the opera or a tertulia in the evening. The 
male sex omit the mass, look a little after their business 
affairs if they have any, go to the opera or tertulia, or the 
gaming table for the night. 

Ladies never attend funerals. Within ten days after 
the obsequies, it is customary to pay visits of condolence. 
The mourners for many days sit in one corner of a dark- 
ened parlor, and the first arrivals seat themselves next the 



FUNERALS — GAMBLING — TITLES. 133 

afflicted, expressing sympathy for the living, or regret for 
the dead ; then make their bows and retire, as the suc- 
ceeding arrivals move up. 

Gambling is a national vice ; but the miners carry it 
on more extensively than any other class. One instance 
came under my own observation where the proprietor of a 
mine, on a steamer coming down from Copiap6,lost 90,000 
dollars in a single night. At many of the houses in San- 
tiago the gaming table is regularly set out, and forms one 
of the features at their entertainments. The poorest pe- 
ones and raggedest urchins can be seen at any time in the 
lanes and alleys, betting medios and centaros with as much 
eagerness as the miner does his ounces. There are laws 
against gaming, but they are not enforced, and even the 
Church keeps silent, as many of her dignitaries are experi- 
enced monte players. 

Although all titles are abolished, many of the old fam- 
ilies would be proud to retain them, and still keep up the 
retinue and state of nobility. The Countess de Toro, 
whom I saw at Santiago, pays the government a yearly 
sum for the privilege of being called countess — an empty 
gratification for which she can well afford to pay, for her 
wealth is almost fabulous. At a ball given during the fes- 



134 HACENDADOS — POLITENESS. 

tivities of the diez y ocho^ besides being richly dressed, 
she wore diamonds estimated to be worth forty thousand 
dollars. She sports a Parisian coach and four, with four 
outriders and a postilion. Her house is a large, two-story 
brick mansion, painted a brilliant red, with white doors and 
window casings. Her husband ordered in his will that the 
color should remain unchanged, and the slightest deviation 
would forfeit the property. 

In the country, on the large estates, many of the hacen- 
dados live in almost regal style, keeping large retinues of 
servants and troops of horses with which to serve and 
amuse the guests, with whom they are always happy to have 
their houses filled. 

We profess to be a cultivated people and stiffen our 
necks with Yankee independence, but in some things we 
might learn courtesy from the Chilenos. They never enter 
or leave a public vehicle without a bow to its occupants, 
and we never make one unless to an acquaintance. At 
the table d'hote at the hotel in Santiago, no lady or gen- 
tleman ever sat down, or rose from table without a 
graceful inclination of the head to all who were present. 
So in shopping, they bow to the merchant or his clerks on 
entering and leaving the store. These simple acts of 



THE CONSTANT CIGAR. 135 

politeness always impressed me pleasantly, and as so much 
better than our own don't-care-for-any-body sort of way. 
In the street, however, the Chilenos might learn from us. 
If a group of gentlemen are conversing on the narrow 
sidewalk, and a lady approaches, they often will not notice 
her, or will perhaps step back, leaving her the curb-stone. 
Sometimes she is obliged to step into the gutter to pass 
around them. 

Ko place except the church is sacred from the fumes of 
the cigar. Gentlemen, whether riding or walking, with or 
"without ladies, are always smoking. The priest in the 
Pantheon takes a whiff between prayers ; and even the 
firemen while running with their engines, must pause to 
light the cigarrito, let the urgency be ever so great. The 
Senoritas have the name of being addicted to this habit, 
and I was told that formerly the greatest compliment a 
lady could pay a gentleman, was to light the cigarrito 
and pass it to him from her own lips ; but I never saw any 
thing of this. 

This is life in Chili. To vegetate in a soft climate, free 
from excitement, except an occasional revolution, or earth- 
quake ; to attend strictly all the fiestas of holy church, and 
ensure salvation, as the priests say ; to walk in the evening 



136 PEONES — MARRIAGE. 

in the Alemedas or public gardens (termed in their 
grandiloquent style, jar dines de las delicias — gardens of 
delight), and to enjoy the moonlight, as advertised in the 
daily paper, Esta noche tendran oportunidad los hermosas 
senoritas de pasearse en el JSden, y oir encantado la musica 
hajo la luna de enero. (This evening our fair ladies will 
have the opportunity of promenading in the enchanted 
Eden, and listening to music beneath the light of the Janu- 
ary moon.) 

As to the second and poorer class of the Chilenos — the 
peones are hideously ugly — with thick heads of hair hang- 
ing straight from the crown, high cheek-bones, wide mouths, 
and copper-colored complexions. Small hands and feet 
are property in the beautiful, common to all Chilenos. 
Some of the women of the peones are quite pretty, but 
there is a great want of chastity among them. Unions 
without marriage are frequent, and are excused on the 
ground that the blessing of the church is too great an ex- 
pense to be incurred. Born as inferiors and dependants, 
the highest ambition of the peones is to serve masters or 
mistresses of wealth and consequence, addressing them as 
Patron, and Patrona. Their necessities are few, and may 
be summed up in a mud, or adobe hut, a hide in one cor- 



PECULIARITIES OP THE PEONES. 137 

ner upon which to sleep, an iron pot and matd cup, bread 
and beans for substantial food, with garlic, or onions and 
fruits for relishes. In the cool rains of winter thej shiver 
uncomplainingly, and when the sun shines, crouch into 
ever J sheltered nook and corner to enjoy its grateful warmth. 
Like all ignorant people they are superstitious, believing in 
charms and amulets as powerful to drive away diseases ; 
and it is common to see them with little round plasters upon 
their temples as antidotes for headache. On Sundays they 
visit the barber, who is one of their own class, and whose 
shop is the shady side of a bit of cloth stretched upon 
poles ; and there perform their toilet for the week to come. 
The wages of a year's labor is often spent upon a poncljo 
to wear at the diez y ocho. Mechanics and shopkeepers 
are a degree removed from these, but there is a want of 
cleanliness in all ; and a passion for display and finery 
that, to gratify in public, they will suffer any deprivation at 
home. 

The 1st of November is All-Saints-Day, when in Catho- 
lic countries, surviving friends decorate the graves of the 
dead, and procure prayers to be said for the souls of the 
departed. The road leading to the Pantheon at Valpa- 
raiso, on this day was thronged with people in deep black, 



138 A DAY AT THE PANTHEON. 

on tlieir way to the performance of these rites. The 
cemetery had been put in order for the occasion — the pits 
had been filled up, and the pieces of coffins and bones had 
been cleared away. We passed through aisles of beggars 
on the hill-side to the gates of the Pantheon, where vend- 
ers of fruits, cakes, ices and milk punch, hoarsely offered 
their wares to purchase, while the vigilantes running about 
to preserve order, contributed to a scene of confusion more 
appropriate to the entrance of a fair ground than the sol- 
emn abode of the dead. At the portal of the Pantheon 
is a hall, opening upon a corridor, near which the chapel 
was filled with kneeling devotees. The interior was 
draped with black, and lamps were burning before the altar. 
In front of the chapel was a table on which stood a figure 
of the Saviour, with an old, brown skull, surrounded with 
wax tapers at its feet. 

The monuments and tombstones were all covered with 
fresh flowers, in wreaths, festoons, and vases, while blos- 
soms were lavishly scattered upon the graves. Many tombs 
were adorned with beautiful garlands of immortelles. Groups 
of people chattmg gaily, were seated upon the stones, 
while at various points throughout the grounds, priests of 
different orders were repeating prayers for the dead. 



PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD. 139 

Passing down the broad walk, on my left was a reverend 
man in long robes of black broadcloth, who would pray 
for any desired soul, at one real a prayer; while on the left 
was a portly-looking person in a flowing gown of white 
merino, whose supplications came one real higher. Be- 
yond these were two priests in gray cloth, who looked 
rather seedy. Their demand was one penny, and to these 
the very poor came, untying the coin from the corner of 
a handkerchief, while one of the priests muttered the 
prayer for which it was to pay. Meanwhile a person in 
secular costume, followed by a score of women, went from 
cross to cross at the graves of the poor, petitioning the Vir- 
gin in their behalf. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Our last summer in Chili was the warmest we experi- 
enced in that climate — the thermometer in the shade rising 
several times as high as 78°. 

We had made up our minds to quit Valparaiso during 
the month of February, with the intention of returning 
home by way of Cape Horn, instead of crossing the Isth- 
mus again — for two reasons : the one was that the Isthmus 
route was very expensive, and the other that a detention of 
two weeks, either at Panama or Aspinwall, was unavoid- 
able, and afforded opportunities for taking the Panama fever 
altogether too flattering. 

A line of ships, between Boston and Valparaiso, made 
regular trips, and we determined to take passage in one of 
these. Our ship was to return to the United States with 
a cargo of wool and copper ores, going to Coquimbo for 
the latter, and thence down the coast, below Valparaiso, to 
the ports of Tome, and Talcahuano, in the Bay of Concep- 



DEPARTURE FROM VALPARAISO. 141 

cion, for the wool — not touching at our port on her down- 
ward passage. So we took the propeller Yaldivia, and 
joined her at Talcahuano. 

We left Valparaiso with many regrets, for our residence 
in its soft climate, and amid its novel scenes had been 
most agreeable, and we were parting moreover from many 
kind friends. On the 10th of February, at noon, we 
rounded the light-house point, and shut the familiar bay 
and city from our view. The second night, at eight 
o'clock, we reached Tome, lying at anchor all night, and 
early in the morning crossing six miles to Talcahuano. 
The Bay of Concepcion is six miles long and four miles 
wide, with Tom^, Liriguen, and Penco on the east, and 
Talcahuano on the west. At the entrance lies the island 
of Quiriguina, nearly three miles in length, and one in 
width. Talcahuano was entirely destroyed by an earth- 
quake and the sea, on the 20th of February in 1835. 
The sea receded and then advanced in three successive 
waves — unbroken walls of water, thirty feet in height — 
dragging ships from their anchors, and dashing one more 
than two hundred yards inland — sweeping houses from 
their foundations, and in the subsidence, bearing away 
the ruins, and leaving the site of the town desolate. At 



142 TALCAHUANO — PEON FUNERAL. 

the first alarm, the inhabitants fled to the hills behind the 
town, and there, with the earth quaking so violently beneath 
them that it was impossible to stand, they beheld the ad- 
vance of the devouring sea, and the utter destruction of 
their property. Talcahuano now contains about about four 
thousand inhabitants, and like other South American towns, 
is mostly built of adobes, though there are some framed and 
brick houses in the place. It has narrow streets, and one 
plaza, where you wander about in the dust, amid peones, 
donkeys, dogs, and fleas, and behold women sitting in 
their doorways strumming guitars. 

It is a great resort for whale ships in the summer 
season, and of course the streets abound in drunken sailors 
whom you always see in a disturbance of some kind. 

One day while there, the sound of music attracted me 
to my door, when I witnessed a most singular pageant. A 
peon was carrying on his extended hands a board about 
five feet long, upon which lay the body of an infant, 
dressed in pink. The eyes stood wide open, and the 
cheeks were painted to simulate the flush of health. The 
man was followed first by two women, then by two men — 
one playing a fiddle and the other a guitar — while a half- 
score of both sexes, brought up the rear, gayly laughing 



UNLADING SHIPS BY LAUNCHES. 143 

and chatting together. They were going to bury the an- 
gelita^ over whom they had danced and frolicked for three 
days — perhaps lending it, in the mean time, once or twice 
to some family that were not so fortunate as to have a 
corpse of their own ; and so furnishing an excuse for or- 
gies quite as wild and ridiculous as those of an Irish wake. 
This custom is generally observed among the more degra- 
ded classes, who often keep a corpse for festive purposes, 
until it brcomes offensive to all who approach tie house. 

Here, as at Valparaiso, ships are unladen and laden by 
means of launches. The boatmen are a class who follow 
this business and no other. The launch is rowed near the 
beach, and then pushed on it, stern foremost, as far as the 
depth of the water will permit ; the men, naked save for a 
shirt and a piece of cloth about the loins, wade through 
the surf carrying articles to shore, no matter what their 
size or weight. I have seen twelve of these men bring to 
shore in this way a large carriage boxed up. Their mus- 
cular frames become wonderfully developed, and it is ^as- 
tonishing with what rapidity they perform their work. 

Concepcion, formerly called Penco, was situated on the 
eastern side of the bay, but its repeated destruction by 
earthquakes, the sea and the Araucanian Indians, drove 



144 PENCO — CONCEPCION. 

the inhabitants nine miles inland, where thej located the 
present city, upon the northern bank of the river Biobio, a 
large navigable stream. 

Old Penco, as it is now called, possesses peculiar inter- 
est from its historical associations, for it was here that the 
cross was first raised in southern Chili, by General Val- 
divia, in 1550. All that is now to be seen of its former 
greatness, are the remains of an old fort, or water battery, 
with walls of great extent and six feet in thickness. On 
the fa9ade is cut in stone, the Spanish coat of arms, cover- 
ing a space of eight feet square, with the date, " Aiio 
1687." 

The road from Talcahuano to Concepcion traverses a 
sandy plain, dotted here and there with shrubs and dwarf 
trees. As we approached, at first we saw what seemed a 
few scattering huts, at the base of a range of sand-hills, 
and not far ofi", the river Biobio ; and were surprised soon 
afterwards to find ourselves in the midst of a city of some 
twelve thousand inhabitants. The streets are of moderate 
width, and the buildings are of course like those of all 
other Chileno towns. It was noon when we entered the 
city, and in passing through a long street to our hotel, we 
saw only three animated objects — two men and a donkey. 



CHILENO HOTEL. 145 

It was the hour of the siesta, the whole city was asleep, 
and in broad day, amid so many thousands of people, there 
was utter silenee. 

The great earthquake of 1835 destroyed Concepcion. 
A lady, who resided there at the time, told me that but 
one house was left standing, and that she lived for some 
time afterwards in a tent. The stone Cathedral of the 
city has never been rebuilt ; its foundation walls on one 
side, and the archway of the door alone remain. I may 
describe the Hotel del Sur, for it was like all other houses 
of the kind in Chili. There was a passage in the centre, 
through which the donkeys with wood and water were 
driven to the kitchen. The only room to sit in was the 
dining-room, floored with brick, and with a bar of liquors 
in one corner. The bed-rooms opened on the patio. The 
kitchen, about twelve feet square, had a brick range on 
one side, and a table opposite — the floor of earth, plaster- 
ed over with all the grease and victuals that had been 
dropped upon it during the preparation of innumerable 
dinners. 

The province of Concepcion is of untold fertility ; it pro- 
duces enormous quantities of wheat of the finest quality, 
and barley, beans, and vegetables of every description, 
10 



146 FRUITS — AGRICULTURE. 

as well as fruits and wine, and cattle and sheep. A wine 
called musto, which they make here in large quantities, is 
like Burgundy in flavor. From the forests of apple trees 
that grow without culture, the national drink chicha is 
made, and a pine tree on the slopes of the Andes yields 
the pinon, a nut similar to the chestnut when boiled, and 
prized as a delicacy by the ladies of Santiago, while to the 
Araucanians, it is bread. 

Gold, copper, and coal abound, and only enterprise and 
mining intelligence are^needed to develop vast mineral 
resources. 

As soon as the rains have sufficiently softened the 
ground, it is prepared for wheat by the rude plough of the 
natives, a knee-shaped piece of wood, of which the larger 
end serves as the share, and the smaller as the handle. 
It has a second straight beam near the joint for the tongue, 
and the end of the share is shod with iron. It does not 
make a furrow more than six inches in depth. The oxen 
are attached by means of a long straight yoke lashed to 
their horns. Ploughs have been brought from the United 
States and England, but the laborers will only use them 
while under the eye of the proprietor, and are averse to 
innovations and improvements. The grain is sown broad- 



THRESHING BY HORSE POWER. 147 

cast, and covered by dragging brush over it ; and the 
sickle is used for reaping. 

While in Concepcion I had an opportunity of witnessing 
the labors of the wheat-threshing, which is an annual 
event of great importance. As the wheat is cut, it is 
placed in a pile on an elevated site, until it rises to the 
height of a considerable hill. The pile I saw was as 
large as six of our common hay-ricK:s, and was inclosed by 
a high fence of poles and bushes, adjoining a field in which 
were some forty mares, only used in this country for the 
purpose of increasing the stock. A portion of the grain 
was thrown from the pile upon the ground ; the mares, 
with half-a-dozen guasos to drive them, were turned in, and 
at a signal from the mayor-domo^ stationed on the summit 
of the pile — away they went at full speed, incited by the 
whips of their drivers, and the yells of a crowd of men and 
boys outside. After a certain number of rounds, " VueU 
tal " roared the mayor-domo, when the mares turned in their 
tracks and ran in an opposite direction — half obscured in 
straw and clouds of dust. Now and then one lost her foot- 
ing and fell, of course bringing all behind her to a full 
stop, but doing no injury to herself in the mass of straw. 
When exhausted, the mares are turned into the corral to 



148 IMMENSE CROPS. 

rest, while the grain was scraped up near the fence, and a 
new supply of unthreshed ears scattered over the ground. 
After the grain is threshed, it is winnowed by being tossed 
into the air, with shovels, when the wind blows away the 
chaff. On some haciendas, where the crop of wheat is 
large, one or two hundred mares are employed in the 
threshing, a sufficient number being hired from neighboring 
estates, when there are not enough on the proprietor's farm. 
A daily feast for the laborers is provided by the patron 
as long as the trilla lasts. It is difficult to arrive accurately 
at the amount of wheat raised in Concepcion, but the av- 
erage value of the crop is something near $12,000,000. 

The bean crop, of which there are some sixteen varieties, 
is of more importance to the laboring classes than any 
other — that vegetable constituting their chief article of 
diet. Indian corn does not thrive well, and beans supply 
to a great extent the place of bread. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The southern part of Chili is classic ground. There, 
inhabiting a delightful territory, situated between the riv- 
ers Biobio and Valdivia, and between the Andes and the 
sea, extending from 30° 44' to 34° 50', south latitude, is 
a nation of Indians, named by the Spaniards, Araucanos, 
who have maintained their independence for more than 
three centuries. So strenuous and succesful has been 
their resistance, that their country was early called, by 
their invaders, the " Invincible State," and a Spanish 
poet has magnanimously celebrated in epic poetry the 
exploits of a people, who, to preserve their independence, 
have caused such torrents of Spanish blood to flow. 

The Spaniards, under their great general, Pedro de 
Valdivia, having conquered the northern provinces, and 
founded the cities of Santiago and Concepcion, in 1550, 
crossed the Biobio to give the Araucanians battle. After 
a hard contest, in which Valdivia said *' he was never in 
such imminent hazard of his life," the Indians, losing 



150 AKAUCANIAN WARS. 

their chief, retreated, and left the Spaniards too much ex- 
hausted to pursue them. 

For the next few years, owing to the timidity of the In- 
dian commander, Yaldivia, sometimes defeated and at 
others victorious, advanced into their territory and found- 
ed seven cities, which prospered for a time. The Arau- 
canos finally deposing their old chief, elected Caupolican, 
who renewed the war, and prosecuted it with vigor, be- 
sieging cities and destroying fortifications, until the inhab- 
itants, driven from one place to another, at last narrowly 
escaped in a vessel from Yaldivia. 

Deeds of heroism done in this war, are recorded worthy 
of more civilized nations. The Araucanos, in their deadly 
hatred to the Spaniards and their determination to keep 
their country free from the yoke of the foreigners, who un- 
der the plea of spreading their religion, committed every 
cruelty and oppression that human nature could invent, con- 
tinued hostilities with a perseverance and resoluteness of 
purpose which nothing could turn aside. 

*' In a battle between Caupolican and Yaldivia, when 
victory seemed in favor of the Spaniards, a young Indian 
named Lautaro, but sixteen years of age, whom Yaldi- 
via had taken in one of his incursions, baptized and made 



HEROIC STRUGGLES AND SACRIFICES. 151 

his page, quitted the victorious party, reproached his coun- 
trymen with cowardice, and grasping a lance, turned a- 
gainst his late master, crying out, ' Follow me, my coun- 
trymen ; victory courts us with open arms.' 

" The Araucanians, ashamed at being surpassed by a 
boy, turned with such fury upon their enemies as to put 
them to rout and destroy them, so that of the whole army 
but two escaped." * 

Valdivia was taken prisoner and killed in 1553, and as 
years passed on, was succeeded by other generals, and 
CaupoHcan had many successors. 

Caupolican was the most distinguished of all the Ar- 
aucanian chiefs. He was defeated in battle, and for a 
long time his retreat was unknown, but finally one of the 
natives being severely tortured, revealed his hiding place, 
when he was captured, after a terrific struggle, with ten 
of his followers, who would not abandon him. His wife, 
who exhorted him to die rather than surrender, on seeing 
him taken, threw her infant son at his feet, saying, " She 
would retain nothing that belonged to a coward," 

In 1590, the Indian chief Guepotau, who had for a long 
time defended a pass in the Andes, desiring to have his 

* Abbe Molina. 



152 A WOMAN WARRIOR. 

wife with him, descended into the plains in search of her, 
but was surprised by a party of Spaniards and killed. 

His wife, Janequeo, burning with a desire to revenge 
her husband's death, placed herself, with her brother, at 
the head of a company of neighboring Indians, and made 
inroads into the Spanish settlements, killing all who fell 
into her hands. 

She sustained successfully many contests with an ex- 
perienced Spanish general, and at the commencement of 
the rainy season, retired to the mountains, fortifying her- 
self in a place surrounded by precipices ; from whence 
she daily harassed a neighboring city in such a manner 
that no on*e dared to leave it. She was finally driven from 
her stronghold by artillery, and saved herself by flight. 

For ninety years the Indians, armed only with spears, 
lances, bows and arrows, waged war with their invaders, 
who were supplied with firearms, and constantly recruited 
from Peru. 

Finally the Spanish government, seeing it had made 
but little progress in conquering this fierce and warlike 
people, made a treaty of peace with them, which continu- 
ed until 1655, when war again broke out, continuing with 
violence for ten years. 



EXPULSION OF INVADERS. 153 

After an interval of peace, in 1723, the Araucanians 
determined to expel the Spaniards from the whole of Chili, 
but this war only amounted to a few skirmishes, when 
peace was established. 

The Araucanians are of medium height, muscular, and 
well formed, with a reddish brown complexion ; their faces 
are oval, with small expressive eyes, rather flat noses, 
and white, even teeth ; the hair, coarse and black, is worn 
long by both sexes, and wound in tresses around the head. 
They have many virtuous qualities as well as savage vices, 
and a haughty contempt for all other nations. The dress 
of the men consists of shirt, pantaloons, and poncho, of 
coarse woollen cloth. The women wear a tunic, and 
ornaments of gold, silver and beads are much prized 
among them. 

Polygamy exists, and plurality of wives are employed 
in manufacturing cloth aud ponchos — the latter often of 
delicate fineness, embroidered with figures of flowers and 
animals, and worth a hundred and fifty dollars. 

The art of weaving was understood by them before the 
arrival of the Europeans in the country, and they had the 
same style of plough now used by the Chilenos. 

The interior of their territory is almost unknown, as 



154 THE ARAUCANOS. 

they are so suspicious of the white race, that only pedlers, 
bringing toys and finery, are permitted to pass to the 
plains. From them we learn that the country is well 
watered by large rivers, has fine forests of timber in the 
interior, and is rich in mines of gold, silver, salt, and coal ; 
that they have immense herds of cattle and horses to bar- 
ter for trinkets — orchards of apples and pears, adjoined by 
fields of wheat, barley, beans, and cabbage ; and that their 
bouses are built of mud or reeds, and situated near streams 
of water. 

The cities founded by Yaldivia (of which Imperial was 
the finest), with the exception of the one bearing his 
name, have been for more than two centuries an undis- 
tinguishable mass of ruins. Yaldivia, built upon a river 
of the same name, eight miles from the sea, is now a Ger- 
man colony under the auspices of the Chilian government, 
and although the colonists are provided with arms for de- 
fense, the Indians occasionally rush in and lay the whole city 
under contribution. It is said that they can bring ten 
thousand warriors into the field, and being most expert 
riders, they generally fight on horseback. Catholic mis- 
sionaries are scattered among the savages along the coast, 
but they make but little progress. 



TERROR OF THE CHILENOS. 155 

Mention the Araucanians to a Chileno at this day and 
he will turn pale ; and I was informed that the govern- 
ment gave them a large subsidy to keep the peace. 

A niece of a weil known family in Valparaiso, some 
years since, started down the coast for Valdivia in an old, 
crazy vessel, much against the wishes of her friends. The 
vessel was wrecked — she fell into the hands of the In- 
dians, and is the wife now of one of their chiefs. One 
thousand gold ounces has been offered by the Chili gov- 
ernment as her ransom, but they refused to give her up 
at any price. 

President Montt, the present Executive, was making a 
tour in the south of Chili, and sent word for one of their 
caciques to come and see him. '' Tell Montt," he re- 
plied, " if he wants to see me, to come where I am," — 
showing that the proud spirit of the great Caupolican is 
not yet extinct in that people. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Our voyage to Boston was not marked by any other 
than the usual events of voyages by the Cape Horn route. 
We set sail from the Bay of Talcahuano, on the 23d of 
February. On the 3d of March, a strong gale commenced 
blowing, with occasional squalls of snow, and during a 
storm of two days, we learned how angry a Pacific ocean 
may become. By the 7th, we were seventy-seven miles 
south of Cape Horn, and after a calm of six hours, our 
ship headed homeward with a fair strong wind, making for 
several days, two hundred and twenty-five miles every 
twenty-four hours. The weather was cold and disagreea- 
ble ; and to this I had the added horrors of sea-sickness. 

We saw the albatross, and the Cape Pigeon, and as we 
entered warmer latitudes, flying-fish began to make their 
appearance ; and stormy-petrels flashed eagerly around the 
ship, and fed on the bits of pork thrown to them. 

On Sunday morning, while we were at breakfast, the 
man at the wheel gave an alarm of sharks, and we hurried 



SHARKS — LIFE IN A CALM. 157 

to the deck. In the water about the stern, some thirty of 
these hideous monsters were playing. Thej were from 
three to seven feet in length, with smooth backs of dark 
green color, and white bellies. A shark-hook was quickly 
baited with a pound or two of pork, and thrown over, 
when one of the largest sharks seized it. He was dragged 
on board by the sailors, and was duly tormented by his im- 
placable enemies. 

As we approched the equator, the fine winds which had 
wafted us so far, died away, and in one week we only 
made one hundred and seventeen miles. The indolent, 
careless life of the calm was pleasant enough. We brought 
our books and work to the deck, and under an awning 
which had been put up to screen us from the sun, watched 
the sailors painting and repairing the rigging. The demon 
of sea-sickness was laid for the time. Sky above and sea 
below were deliciously blue ; the slow sun rose and sank ; 
the moon nightly poured her light upon the smooth and 
silent ocean, while the sailors sang their songs, and talked 
of every land. We ate and slept ; we lived in our little 
lazy city of wooden walls, and knew nothing of the toil 
and turmoil of the great worlds to the east and west. 

One night, when we were within three miles of the 



158 LAND ! AND HOME. 

equator, I was awakened by the sound of the ship rushing 
through the water. A fair wind was blowing, and we 
were once more in flight for home. 

Every night we examined the chart to see how rapidly 
the distance between us and home decreased, and grew 
more impatient as we drew nearer to our native land. In 
the gulf stream we had one rough day, but after that, 
our progress was rapid and almost direct. 

Ho, for land ! When seventy-six days out, the Captain 
announced that on the morrow at two, we should see Cape 
Cod. That day the sun rose brightly ; the wind blew 
fresh and free, and our ship carried every stitch of canvas 
her masts would bear. 

As the hour of two approached, all eyes were turned in 
eager expectation. " Land ho ! Land ho ! " shouts the 
lookout from aloft. " Land ho I " echoes the Captain, and 
all who can, mount the rigging. 

It is not long before my unpractised eyes distinguish 
the sandy hills of Cape Cod, and my heart leaps with a 
joyful rapture to behold my native land once more. 

At eight o'clock we enter Boston Harbor, and in fifteen 
minutes, a pilot takes us up the channel. 



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